Luol Ajou Deng was born April 16, 1985, in Wau, in what is now South Sudan. He is a member of the Dinka ethnic group. His father, Aldo Ajou Deng, was a member of the Sudanese parliament. His mother, Martha Leon John, raised nine children. When Luol was three, his father moved the entire family out of Sudan to escape the Second Sudanese Civil War. They settled in a tiny apartment in Cairo. They were refugees. They had nothing.
‘My parents were my greatest role models. What we went through, how they were always positive. They never lost their edge. My mom is very religious and we always just believed it was going to get better.’
In Egypt, the Deng family met Manute Bol — the former NBA center, 7-foot-7, a Dinka from Sudan who had played for the Bullets, Warriors, and 76ers. After his NBA career, Bol ran a basketball school in Cairo for Sudanese refugees. He taught Luol’s older brother Ajou how to play, and Ajou taught Luol. The game that would carry Deng out of refugee life was delivered by a 7-foot-7 legend in an Egyptian apartment. ‘Manute stood for the right things. He was always going back home and giving back. That’s who he was and basketball didn’t change him.’
The family was granted political asylum in the UK. They settled in Brixton, South London. Luol was about ten. He didn’t speak a word of English. Arabic was his first language. But he was good at football — every kid on the playground wanted him on their team. ‘I was able to learn English quickly because of sports.’ Coach Jimmy Rogers at the Brixton Topcats convinced him to play basketball instead of football.
At fourteen, Deng moved to Blair Academy in New Jersey alone. Another culture shock. By senior year: #2 recruit in America. The only player ranked above him was LeBron James.