By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Lille, France – If there’s a feel-good story in the Olympic basketball tournament, it’s South Sudan. What’s essentially a team of refugees representing a young nation became the first African team since Nigeria in 1996 to win a game in the Olympics.
So how does it feel to make history? “Oh, man, it feels great”, it was the honest reaction of Carlik Jones who led the charge against Puerto Rico.
As he added: “Without God, none of this is possible. Without my teammates, without my coaches, without the fans, I think none of it is possible. So we’re just blessed, and I’m glad we were able to do it”.
Even in the moment of their glory, in their presentation in the Olympics, there was a mix-up with the national anthem of Sudan and not the one of South Sudan being played in the arena.
“I’ll say it added more fuel to the fire”, admitted Jones but the motivation was already there: “I think we had a lot of fuel coming in. I feel like a lot of people don’t think we belong. A lot of people think that we don’t deserve to be here. But if you ask me, I think we have every right to be here. And, you know, we’re confident. We’re confident in the team. We’re confident in what we’ve done so far. And we just know we’ve got to keep going”.
“I hope we put a lot of smiles on a lot of people’s faces”
South Sudan became an independent state in 2011 and through basketball, starting from the recent FIBA World Cup, the young country is leaving the mark.
Carlik Jones is fully aware of what his play on the basketball court means to a lot of people: “I think it means the world. I think it just lets them know that anything’s possible as long as you just keep working hard and battle adversity. So I hope we put a lot of smiles on a lot of people’s faces”.
The win against Puerto Rico may be enough to send South Sudan to the quarterfinals of the Olympics but Jones wants more in the group stage against powerhouses Serbia and USA: “It sounds great. I’m definitely looking forward to it, but we’ve got two big games coming up, and we’re going to lock in on this next team. it’s not going to be easy. I don’t think any game is going to be easy, but we just got to lock in, and, you know, we live with the results when we give 100%. But I just feel like you have to respect us now, just with a lot of good shooting, just on the defensive end. Like I said, the respect just keeps going up, and you have to look at it differently”.
Jones may soon have a special connection with Serbia, since there’s a pending deal between him and Partizan, however for the moment he hasn’t confirmed or denied that the deal is done.
As he said smiling when asked if he already feels a bit Serbian already because of that: “Not yet, not just yet”.
Photo credit: FIBA