South Sudan’s story continues at the Paris Games, where a return basketball match with the US national team will be held

VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France (AP) — South Sudan coach Royal Ivey says his life looks like a movie at the moment.

Maybe he’s right: an underfunded team from a country that is still struggling effects of civil war and, preparing for its first free elections, stuns basketball players by qualifying for the Olympics, then nearly defeating the best team in the world to win its first match at the Olympics. Paris Games.

Yes, it feels like a movie script. And make no mistake: the U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team loves this story.

It’s just not going to deliver a Hollywood ending.

“Everyone is going to give it their all,” Ivey said. “We’re not a secret anymore.”

Absolutely. The U.S. and South Sudan will meet in a group match at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, two weeks after the African nation — the world’s youngest, having gained independence just 13 years ago — nearly stunned the Americans in a London exhibition, losing 101-100 in a match through which it had led most of the way.

“I secretly root for him a little bit,” said U.S. forward Kevin Durant when asked about Ivey, who was Durant’s teammate and U.S. assistant coach Tyronn Lue during his NBA profession and whom Durant still considers a close friend. “Except when he’s playing with us.”

Both teams won their first of three group stage matches at these Olympics; South Sudan beat Puerto Rico while The US has overtaken Serbia. Wednesday’s winner could be certain of a place in the quarter-finals, depending on the results of other games. In the worst-case scenario, the winner could be one step away from reaching the knockout stages.

For the U.S., it’s no big deal, considering they have been to the Olympics 19 times and won medals each time. For South Sudan, all the pieces is a big deal — their first Olympics, their first victory, the first time the world will be watching to see if the Americans’ near-surprise defeat two weeks ago was a fluke or not.

“Of course, we’re very confident,” said Nuni Omot of South Sudan. “We’ll keep playing. We’ll keep defending. Anything’s possible. It’s basketball, at the end of the day. We’re all working hard. We’re all doing the same thing. Just to be able to face a team like that is a big test.”

How this team got to Paris is a different story.

Two-time NBA All-Star Luol Deng, who runs the South Sudan program and was the mastermind behind what happened, is spending a few of his personal wealth — his NBA contracts total about $175 million — to cover team expenses. The team famously doesn’t have a training facility in South Sudan because there’s nothing there that resembles an NBA-class gym. Players fly around the coach, shoving big guys into exit rows and experiencing things like seven-hour delays in Rwanda. Yet they did well enough at last 12 months’s World Cup to secure a spot in the Olympics, after which almost defeated the Americans on the solution to France.

“For us, the fact that we’re here is a huge achievement,” said striker Kuany Kuany. “So we just want to enjoy it, make the most of it, have fun and just show everyone what South Sudan is all about.”

I mean, the good side.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long conflict, then erupted into a civil war two years later that claimed nearly 400,000 lives and displaced greater than 4 million people before ending in 2018. South Sudan stays suffering from clashes, a sometimes fragile economy, and human rights groups warn of food insecurity for tens of millions of residents. The long-awaited elections were to be held in February 2023, now they’re scheduled for December.

“It’s an incredible accomplishment, considering the war that’s been going on in this region for so long, so many refugees coming to the United States and other countries over the last few decades, rebuilding their lives and building a basketball association in the midst of war and hardship,” Kerr said. “And then Royal and his staff have put together a really good team that’s playing modern basketball — stretching the floor, shooting threes, attacking the rim, it’s pretty dramatic and extraordinary.”

It also caught the attention of the Americans.

No one will be capable of take South Sudan calmly on Wednesday, especially after the last time these two teams met. The U.S. needed a LeBron James jump shot with eight seconds left to avoid perhaps the most surprising loss in international basketball history.

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South Sudan’s best player this summer has been Carlik Jones. He has NBA experience; 12 games, to be exact. And yet he scored a triple-double against the Americans in London. If this were really a movie, it could be a plot twist. But the NBA’s all-star roster is wary, rightly so, and American point guard Stephen Curry says it’s a reminder that Americans have what he calls “appropriate fear” of each opponent.

“We’re beatable if we don’t play our game,” Curry said. “But if we do play our game, we have a lot of confidence that we can beat anyone.”

Team USA said this was to be expected.

The thing is, the people of South Sudan feel exactly the same way.

“It’s so surreal,” Ivey said. “I couldn’t have experienced anything better.”