The Most Famous
BASKETBALL PLAYERS from South Sudan
This page contains a list of the greatest South Sudanese Basketball Players. The pantheon dataset contains 1,268 Basketball Players, 2 of which were born in South Sudan. This makes South Sudan the birth place of the 50th most number of Basketball Players behind Puerto Rico and The Bahamas.
Top 2
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary South Sudanese Basketball Players of all time. This list of famous South Sudanese Basketball Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Luol Deng (1985 - )
With an HPI of 35.62, Luol Deng is the most famous South Sudanese Basketball Player. His biography has been translated into 39 different languages on wikipedia.
Luol Ajou Deng (born 16 April 1985) is a South Sudanese-British former professional basketball player. He was a two-time NBA All-Star and was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team in 2012. Born in what is now South Sudan, Deng fled the country with his family as a child, eventually settling in the United Kingdom. He became a British citizen in 2006, and has played for the Great Britain national team. After playing college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils, Deng was selected by the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the 2004 NBA draft with the seventh overall pick. He was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team as a 19-year-old in 2005. The small forward was an All-Star with the Bulls in 2012 and 2013 before splitting the 2013–14 season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. After just half a season with Cleveland, Deng joined the Miami Heat for 2014–15. He played two seasons for the Heat before signing with the Lakers in 2016. He spent his last season with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Deng has been the president of the South Sudan Basketball Federation since 2019. He is an assistant coach for the South Sudan men's national team and has previously served as its head coach.
2. Thon Maker (1997 - )
With an HPI of 21.49, Thon Maker is the 2nd most famous South Sudanese Basketball Player. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Thon Marial Maker (born 25 February 1997) is a South Sudanese-Australian professional basketball player for Al Riyadi Club Beirut of the Lebanese Basketball League (LBL). He attended high school at Orangeville District Secondary School and played basketball for Canada's Athlete Institute. He was picked 10th overall in the 2016 NBA draft, and played for three different NBA teams between 2016 and 2021.
Pantheon has 2 people classified as basketball players born between 1985 and 1997. Of these 2, 2 (100.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living basketball players include Luol Deng and Thon Maker.
