By Andy Loigu

When Luol Deng was a senior at Blair Academy, Parade Magazine and USA Today rated him the number two high school basketball player in the nation — behind LeBron James,

Since then he has played in the Final Four of March Madness with Duke University and has been a two-time All-NBA player in a 15-year pro career with the Phoenix Suns,Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Minnesota Wolves and Los Angeles Lakers.

Now his extraordinary basketball skills and experience have led him to the Paris Olympics, where he is a coach. Since that Saturday afternoon in Blairstown in 2009 when coach Joe Mantegna and the Blair basketball family retired his number, Deng has been an accomplished and busy young man.

His path to Paris began when he was born in what is now known as South Sudan. His family fled the horrible warfare that was making life there a living hell and settled in quaint and proper London, England. Soon, as a teenager, Deng played for the British National Team. His family enrolled him at Blair when he was 14 years old, feeling the youngster would learn better in a peaceful and scenic setting in Warren County than in a city like New York.

Adult basketball fans in the area maintained their interest in the local public school, North Warren Regional, but also enjoyed attending Blair’s home games, getting 

to see what an NBA talent looks like.

Deng signed his letter of intent with Duke while Blair still had most of its schedule for his senior season to play. After covering a couple of his games for the publication which was known as the Blairstown Press, I started calling him “The Duke of Dunk.” He didn’t seem to mind.

He averaged 15.1 points per game at Duke with a team that spread the floor and emphasised a passing oriented offense.

Now, 20 years later, he is President of the South Sudan Basketball Federation, a post he has held since 2019. He has helped, as one of a staff of coaches, to develop players who have become a team that qualified for the Olympic Games this year. In a pre-Olympic game, they gave the United States team a mighty tough struggle.

Deng retains dual citizenship (England and South Sudan) and keeps very busy supporting charitable causes fighting hunger, poverty and illiteracy.

I’m happy to have crossed paths with him while covering local sports in the Blairstown area.

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.