Road to Duke
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.
At Duke
One season at Duke, 2003–04, but it was enough. He averaged 15.1 points and 6.9 rebounds as a freshman — the team’s leading scorer on a roster with Chris Duhon, Shelden Williams, Daniel Ewing, and J.J. Redick. Duke went 31–6 and reached the Final Four before falling to UConn.
Deng played with the maturity and composure of someone who had been through things that made college basketball seem manageable. A refugee from a civil war does not panic in a half-court set. He declared for the draft after one season.
After Duke
Phoenix selected Deng 7th overall and immediately traded him to Chicago. He spent ten seasons with the Bulls (2004–14). Never the face of the franchise — that was Derrick Rose — but Dime magazine called him ‘the most underrated player in the NBA.’ Coach Thibodeau: ‘The glue that holds the Bulls together.’ GM John Paxson: ‘He really does epitomize everything I had hoped for as a person and a basketball player.’
All-Rookie First Team (2005). Two-time All-Star (2012, 2013). All-Defensive Second Team (2012). Career-high 40 points vs Portland. Six-year, $71M extension. Averaged 43 minutes per game in the 2011 playoffs, praised for defending LeBron in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Cleveland (traded 2014). Miami (two seasons). LA Lakers (4-year, $72M — a contract that became infamous when they benched him during their rebuild). Minnesota (final stop, 2018–19). Fifteen seasons. 900+ games. ~$150M in career earnings. NBA Sportsmanship Award. J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. UN Refugee Agency Humanitarian of the Year (2008). ‘I love basketball, but if I don’t share my success, what’s the point.’
Where Is He Now
In 2005, one year into his NBA career, Deng founded the Luol Deng Foundation. In 2010, he returned to South Sudan for the first time since fleeing as a toddler. He didn’t recognize anything he saw. He built basketball courts, donated computers to refugee camps, opened the Manute Bol Court in Juba — dedicated to the man who taught him the game in Cairo.
In 2012, he captained Great Britain’s basketball team at the London Olympics. Became a British citizen in 2006. Appointed OBE in 2021. ‘A refugee is a survivor. A refugee is someone that has no choice but to make a difficult decision.’
In 2019, Deng became President of the South Sudan Basketball Federation. Using his own money, he built the national team from nothing into a global force. They qualified for the 2023 FIBA World Cup (their first ever) and the 2024 Paris Olympics — the first time South Sudan, a nation that has existed only since 2011, competed in Olympic basketball. Deng served as assistant coach. The team flew 18-hour flights to Rwanda for training camp. They squeezed big men into exit rows. In Paris, South Sudan defeated Puerto Rico in their Olympic debut.
He is 40. Born in Wau during a civil war. His father packed nine children into a Cairo apartment. Manute Bol taught his brother basketball there, and his brother taught him. A ten-year-old who didn’t speak English learned the language playing football in Brixton. Ranked #2 behind only LeBron. One season at Duke, Final Four. Drafted 7th, fifteen NBA years, two-time All-Star, OBE. Then he went home. He opened the Manute Bol Court. He became president of the basketball federation of a country that didn’t exist when he was born. He funded the national team from his own pocket. He took South Sudan to the Olympics. Because Manute Bol gave him hope in an Egyptian apartment, and Luol Deng decided the only way to repay that was to give it to everyone else.