South Sudan - is one of the youngest and poorest countries on the planet, but also a country that basketball has breathed new life into.
12 years ago, this country in the east of Africa gained its independence through bloody struggles, and this summer the basketball players of South Sudan made their homeland finally the talk of the town and for much nicer things.
Led by the president of the Federation, Luol Deng - a former NBA star and a man who as a boy had to escape from South Sudan - the basketball players of this country managed to qualify for the Mundobasket at the first attempt, and through the games there, an unreal trip to the Olympic Games next year in Paris.
And all this without an indoor basketball court in the whole of South Sudan.
"I believe we are the first team in basketball history to win the World Cup without a basketball hall in the country," Deng recently told "Olympics".
The fact that they don't have their own basketball home didn't bother Venjen Gabriel (basketball player of the LA Lakers and the team's biggest star) and his friends from making it to Mundobasket, so they wrote the historical pages as "hosts" in Alexandria (Egypt), Kigali (Rwanda), Dakar (Senegal) )...
Love for the homeland is something that especially leads South Sudan to basketball success...
"We're just a group of guys who only care about winning because of what it brings to our nation. It's not about basketball, it's about South Sudan," said Deng, a former NBA star - formerly of the Chicago Bulls.
Basketball changed the lives of many in that country...
"Previously, when the World Cup in football or basketball was held in our country, it was a topic that practically no one talked about. We were occupied with other things. Now, wherever on the planet basketball is discussed, someone from South Sudan will appear to discuss it. ", Deng was picturesque.
Sudan achieved its historic qualification for the Olympic Games by triumphing over Angola in the Munobasket, where it recorded two more victories this summer - against China and the Philippines. They were defeated by Serbia and after extra time by Puerto Rico.
Dreams don't end with Mundobasket. On the contrary, real things await this country next summer under the Olympic rings of Paris.
Bonus video:
