Wenyen Gabriel in blue. (Courtesy).

South Sudan Basketball Team landed a huge boost on Wednesday as NBA star Wenyen Gabriel and several diaspora players joined the Bright Stars to play for their ancestral home in the upcoming FIBA World Cup.

“We are excited to announce the newest bright star, Wenyen Gabriel,” the national basketball federation announced in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

Wenyen holds dual South Sudanese – American citizenship and previously played for Los Angeles Lakers before becoming a free agent. He played in 68 regular season games (and ten NBA playoff games) for Lakes.

The 26-year-old has career averages of 4.5 points and 3.4 rebounds per contest while shooting 53.1% from the field and 31.9% from the three-point range in 145 regular season games (he has also appeared in 14 NBA playoff games).

The other two players announced to have opted for the South Sudan team are Australia-based Mangok Mathiang and Canada-based Marial Shayok.

Mathiang is a South Sudanese-Australian player who is currently under contract from the New Zealand Breakers of the National Basketball League (NBL).

Born in Juba in 1992, Mathiang and his family fled the Sudanese civil war to Egypt before migrating to Australia.

Prior to his professional career, he played basketball in high school and colleges in Australia and the United States.

Marial Makur Shayok is a Canadian professional basketball player for the Maine Celtics of the NBA G League.

He played college basketball for the Virginia Cavaliers and Iowa State Cyclones.

Meanwhile, prolific American basketball star Carlik Anthony Jones has switched allegiance to South Sudan. Born in December 1997, he currently plays for NBA’s Chicago Bulls