Deng happy to bide his time for NBA riches

By Ian Whittell (The Times (London)
Friday, February 13, 2004

He speaks three languages, has lived on three continents in his 18 years and recently turned down the guarantee of several million dollars to attend university. Loul Deng’s is certainly no ordinary story but it is one that, through tragedy and hardship, seems destined to end in sporting greatness and vast fortune.

Apart from his 6ft 8in, 15st 10lb physique, Deng could walk through the streets of his adopted home town of London earning scarcely a second glance, yet in Durham, North Carolina, where he is one of the leading lights of the No 1-ranked Duke College basketball team, the son of a Sudanese politician is regarded as his team’s saviour and a certain future elite player in the NBA.

It is a status that could have gone to the head of many teenagers, especially when it was made known to him that he would have been selected by an NBA team if he had chosen to forgo college and move directly to the professional ranks last summer. However, when you have lost -literally and figuratively -so much, dealing with the adulation bestowed upon the modern sporting icon is child’s play.

Deng’s father, Aldo, was Sudan’s Minister of Transportation until a bloodless coup in January 1989 saw the National Islamic Front come to power and Deng flee with his family, including 4-year-old Loul, to Egypt. Four years later, Aldo was granted political asylum in Britain and established a home for his wife, Martha, and nine children in South Norwood, South London.

“My Dad realised the danger early when he was Minister of Transportation,” Deng said last week, the day after leading Duke to an 83-81 victory over North Carolina. “When the Government was overthrown, he knew what was going on in the country. So the first thing he did was move his family to Egypt and then to England.

“Yes, my childhood was tough, but it is probably what has made me who I am today.

It made me mature very quickly. That is one of the reasons I feel I have been making the right decision throughout my life, because of what I have been through.

“Everybody has to go through tough times in life, it is just that some of us go through tougher times than others. We went through ours and that brought us closer together as a family and (made us) even hungrier to achieve our goals.

“That’s why when people say it must have been tough to turn down the NBA and come to college, they don’t know what they are talking about. That’s not the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do. Just growing up and going through tough times was far more difficult. We lost family and friends in the Sudan, we left people behind there and in Egypt, but you cannot get to where you want to be without sacrifices and I’ve had to sacrifice some stuff.”

Deng, whose older brother, Ajou, and his sister, Arek, play college basketball at Fairfield and Delaware respectively, is a member of the Dinka tribe, a group renowned for its tall people, including the 7ft 6in former NBA player, Manute Bol, another Sudanese exile, who introduced Deng to the finer points of basketball while on holiday in Egypt.

Once in London, Deng came under the influence of Brixton Topcats and Jimmy Rogers, their coach, before his prodigious talent saw him make the inevitable move to high school in the United States four years ago. “Jimmy was just an amazing coach,” Deng said. “When I came to high school at 14, because of the time and effort Jimmy had put in with me, I soon realised I was far ahead of the other kids. At Brixton, Jimmy made me play with men and practise with men, not with other kids. That toughened me up, not just physically but mentally.”

So much so that, by last season, at Blair Academy in New Jersey, Deng was considered the second-best high school player in the US, behind LeBron James, who subsequently became the first high school player selected first in the NBA draft.

Deng would certainly have been chosen in the draft -possibly in the top ten had he opted for it. “I had an option to go to the NBA, but the only reason I would rush to go pro is if I needed money badly or in an emergency,” Deng said. “I felt my game was not totally there, I wanted the chance to play for one of the best, if not the best, coaches in the world (Mike Krzyzewski, of Duke) and that learning from him would help my game even more.”

After a rusty start, Deng’s decision looks prescient. He is averaging 14.3 points and seven rebounds a game for a Duke team who have won 20 of their 21 games and are considered favourites to win the national title in April. More importantly, NBA scouts believe that his decision to spend time fine-tuning his game in the college ranks will only enhance his worth. Deng refuses to commit himself and much may depend on whether Duke win the title, but the consensus is that he will spend at least one more season after this in college before moving to the NBA, by which time he could be the No 1 draft pick.

Given Deng’s British passport, the fact that he has already played for the England team at junior levels and that he considers London home, the sport in this country seems destined to be able to boast a bona fide icon.

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