South Sudan basketball team and fans celebrate independence day in Kigali Rwanda. July 9, 2024. (Photo: SSB/Facebook).

Young South Sudanese fans are encouraging the National Men’s Basketball Team to accelerate their performance in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, adding that their recent exhibition matches helped changed the global narrative about South Sudan.

Achendi Philemon, a student at the University of Juba, said despite lack of modern training facilities, South Sudan were close to shocking world number one USA, in a warm-up match which she believes has announced the country to the world.

She said the bright stars have brought hope to the young generation for a better future.

“The performance was so good, you know our country is just 13 years, our boys never had facilities like outsiders do but they managed, they really brought that hope out of us,” Achendi said.

She added: “At least the world knows what we hold. They are actually doing very well, we thank them.”

Another student, Deng Panchol said although young people in South Sudan endure countless hardships, the Bright Stars have consoled them and made the country proud.

Panchol is encouraging the team to put more efforts to produce better results in the Olympics.

South Sudan came close to shocking Team USA on July 20 – maintaining a comfortable lead from the start to the second quarter as the USA struggled and missed shots from range in the match attended by more than 17,000 fans at the O2 Arena.

But Los Angeles Lakers legend LeBron James came from the bench to put his men ahead – scoring 23 points as the game ended in a narrow 101-100 margin.

It is the only lose for Royal Ivey’s men, who have beaten Great Britain and Portugal in their last two preparatory matches of the Paris Olympics.

“Just looking at the situation that we are in, we have a lot of stress that we are going through, these players they are so much devoted to make our country proud. However, they are still need for more effort to be exerted to play a much better game than the previous ones,” he told Eye Radio.

Meanwhile, Der Beny has urged government to invest in sports for the country to be properly represented on the global map.

“These players are the only hope that we have as south Sudanese we need to keep supporting them.”

“The fact is that we are the only country in Africa which qualify for that Olympic and we are proud about. Government really has to support these players; they are showing the name of our country into the map.”

At the Paris Olympics, South Sudan are in the same group with USA, Serbia and Puerto Rico – the last two of which they last faced in the 2023 FIBA World Cup in Manila.

The Bright Stars sailed to the top of African basketball and fielded an extraordinary show of class in the FIBA World Cup, making them the continent’s only competitors in the upcoming Olympics.