By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Lille, France – “We had this marked for one year”. After South Sudan made history, coach Royal Ivey didn’t hold back on his emotions and happiness.
A few months ago South Sudan lost during the FIBA World Cup to Puerto Rico and they returned the favor in the Olympics.
As Ivey said: “We competed in every play, we got down early. Alvarado is a hell of a player and I knew he was coming back after being hurt. He’s from New York. So he has that New York toughness, but we just stuck to our game plan. We got threes, played fast, played physically, defended. And we kept them off the offensive rebound, that’s how they beat us last year. They got us during the World Cup, and we had to return the favor. And my hats off to Puerto Rico, a hell of a team”.
While Ivey is doing this, the rest of the basketball world is tipping their hats to South Sudan, which proved beyond any doubt that they belong in the big state: “We had a focus, we had this circle for a year, and I had to wait a year. In the FIBA World Cup, we gave away a ten-point lead and they beat us in overtime. So this was a revenge game. And I don’t want to stir it up, but that’s the truth”.
It’s like a movie and coach Ivey doesn’t deny it: “This is a movie, my life is a movie right now. Being in the Olympics, and getting our first win, I’m proud of my players, one through 12, everybody contributed. This is so, so real, I couldn’t experience anything better than this. And I’m so thankful for the opportunity, I thank you all, and I thank my coaching staff, Luol Deng, everyone”.
The win against Puerto Rico can be considered a happy ending since some chapters included a lot of difficulties for things that other national teams take for granted: “We don’t have the pleasure of having a gymnasium, dorms, and other facilities. We had a tough training camp in Rwanda, then traveled to Spain, moving around a lot, taking long flights, and giving up exit rows to my 7-footers. These are the things people don’t talk about. They don’t see us getting delayed for seven hours in the airport while we’re in Chad.”
“This is an amazing chapter”
Like South Sudan, Ivey didn’t expect to be a head coach in the Olympics: “I said my life is like a movie. This is chapter 42, so this is chapter 42, and this is an amazing chapter for me.
Being here, playing in the league for 10 years, now I’m coaching, I’m the OG, I’m the old head. I never thought I would be a coach. I thought I’d be a schoolteacher or run my own prep school, but I’m a coach and I’m investing in the youth and these young guys, so at the end of the day, man, like I said, my life is a movie.
I’m in chapter 42, keep it going. Everything’s been surreal my whole life. I’ve been an overachiever in life. People told me, no, you couldn’t do this. You’re not quick enough, you’re not smart enough, you’re not fast enough, and I continue to, you know, prove people wrong, and that’s the story.
You can do whatever you put your mind to. You can manifest whatever you want in this life. It’s achievable, so I’m just living proof”.
“Kevin Durant, that’s my brother”
There’s more to that. South Sudan put Team USA to the test in the recent prep game in London and now they will have the chance to play them again in an official game.
Ivey, as a Houston Rockets assistant coach, knows everyone pretty well and even more Kevin Durant, his former teammate in Oklahoma City: “That’s my brother. I love him, but I hit him after the Olympics. We know, you know, it’s competition. I saw him in the friendly game. I gave him love, but it’s competition. He knows that, and I love him and I wish the best for him.
Hopefully, he plays against Serbia, so I’m hearing the ringings of that, but that’s definitely my little brother. I’ve known Kevin since he was 18 years old, so we’re not talking just like when he’s on the other team.
I don’t talk to him. I treat him like another player, and he knows that, but when we get outside the lines, it’s always love”.
When the two teams met in London, Paul Pierce and Gilbert Arenas had some pretty harsh comments for them, prompting the reaction of Luol Deng.
That will not be the case in the next game, as Ivey said: “Oh, we’re no secret anymore. So everybody’s going to give us their best shot, just like Puerto Rico came out on fire. And we’re resilient. We held it down. We gained our composure. We came back”.
And now South Sudan wants to do it again…
Photo credit: FIBA