‘Where the real wins are’: basketball’s rising star Bul Kuol on the other World Cup inspiring a nation

Bul Kuol has never been to his homeland. He left South Sudan before it was an independent nation, arriving in Canberra as a refugee as a child. So when the South Sudanese basketball team play Australia’s Boomers in Melbourne tonight, Kuol will be filled with mixed emotions. For the emerging basketball star, both countries are part of his identity. Both he calls home.

Kuol is one of a number of South Sudanese-Australian basketball players who have helped the young nation qualify for its first-ever Basketball World Cup, which begins next week in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia. For the 26-year-old, the call-up for South Sudan required him to relinquish the opportunity to play for Australia.

It is a decision he does not regret. The success of the South Sudanese team, the Bright Stars, has brought joy to a nation still racked by conflict after becoming an independent country in 2011. “It’s provided a nation with pride, with unity,” Kuol says. “It’s brought people together despite the differences, despite the conflict.” There is a sense within the team, he says, of a wider, nation-building mission.

“What we’re doing – it’s not for ourselves,” he says. “We’re winning games, we’re qualifying. But that’s not where the real wins are. The real wins are at home, where people are celebrating, people are experiencing joy, people are excited.

“There’s nothing like it,” Kuol continues. “The game of basketball – it’s just a game … the World Cup will be done, another one will happen. But we’ll remember the journey, we’ll remember exactly what we were able to do together as one.”

‘I hated basketball’

Kuol grew up in the Kakuma refugee camp in north-western Kenya. But his first love was football, not basketball.

“We would play soccer all day,” he says. “We couldn’t afford a ball, so we would get a balloon, blow it up with air and then wrap it with old clothes. We made our own soccer ball!” Kuol takes a moment to reminisce about his childhood. “We basically grew up on Chinese kung fu movies,” he laughs. “Then we’d try those moves in the playground.” But there was a hard edge to life in the camp, one of the largest in the world. “We grew up fast,” Kuol admits.

His family came to Australia in 2006, when Kuol was nine, and settled in Canberra. The change in environment was overwhelming. “It was mind blowing to me,” he says, citing the prevalence of concrete and the ready access to electricity. Kuol still wanted to be a footballer and idolised the likes of Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, he laughs. “I hated basketball.”

But Kuol’s uncle, Garang Kuer Bul, took him under his wing – and basketball followed. “He was playing basketball a lot, and wherever he went, I was [there],” Kuol recalls. “I just fell in love with it. I spent so much time around basketball that it became part of my life. Whatever I did revolved around basketball.”

Kuol ultimately played college basketball in the United States before signing for the National Basketball League club Cairns Taipans, where he was NBL rookie of the year last season. At 201cm (6ft 7in), Kuol has pace and height as a shooting guard or small forward. He has broken a number of rookie records, including for three-pointers, during his time in the NBL.

As Kuol’s star rose, he began to attract the attention of the Boomers’ set-up. Early last year he received an email notifying him that he was on the national team’s radar for selection ahead of the World Cup qualifiers. But in March he also received a direct message on Instagram from an official with the South Sudan national team. “It was a simple interaction: ‘Would you want to come to the camp?’” he says.

“As soon as I saw the message it was a no-brainer. Of course – it would be my pleasure, my honour to do something like that. That’s how it all started.”

The timing of the competing invitations hints at a two-nation dilemma, but Kuol is quick to downplay that narrative. “It’s not that big of a deal,” he says of the Boomers invite. “I wasn’t even part of the team yet, it was just to come to camp.”

“Australia is home, my adopted home,” he says. “It is part of who I am – a place that I’ve grown up, a place that I’ve learned, a place that I found opportunity, a place to call home. But South Sudan is who I am, where my parents are from, my heritage, my history.”

Australia has proven itself in basketball, he says, noting the Boomers’ bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. South Sudan’s basketball future is still being formed. “I could be part of something that’s starting. It was as simple as that.”

The South Sudan team is made up of a mix of Australian and American-based diaspora and several players who ply their trade across Africa. After the team qualified for the World Cup, some diaspora members of the team travelled to South Sudan – but Kuol had to return to Australia for club duties.

“I haven’t seen my dad in years, I haven’t seen that side of my family in years,” he says [Kuol’s father lives near the capital, Juba]. “I don’t know what my country looks like.”

Kuol’s teammates raved about their trip home, he says. “They were telling me, ‘Man, there’s nothing like being back home. Being around people that look like you’ … Some guys got dragged out of there – they didn’t want to leave! That was the energy – there’s nothing like being home. I’ve never felt that – so I wanna see what they’re talking about.”

***

It’s the depths of Canberra winter at the Belconnen Basketball Stadium and dozens of kids, from five-year-olds to teenagers, are waiting for Kuol. He has taken time out from his off-season to convene a school holiday camp, calling in his friends from across the basketball world. A poster for the camp displays nine “coaches” – three would later find themselves on the South Sudan extended roster ahead of the World Cup, Junior Madut, Kuany Kuany and Sunday Dech.

But as the kids warm up, Kuol is nowhere to be seen. At last he bursts into the cavernous gym, apologising to the gathered crowd. “I ran late to my own camp,” he laughs. Kuol had spent the morning wrangling logistics to get his cousins, nieces and nephews to the camp. “Twelve kids, one car, five seats – the maths doesn’t work,” he says.

Soon the transport difficulties are forgotten. The sound of basketballs hitting the hardwood floor overwhelms the arena, as Kuol splits up his coaches to take charge of different age groups. In between it all, the Tapians star steals a moment to take it all in. His face lights up.

“This is what matters to me,” says Bul. “To be able to put on a camp and have all these different people – the African community, the South Sudanese community, the Canberran community – to have everyone coming together.”

Bul, Kuol’s uncle, is watching on from the sidelines. “I thought he would play for Australia,” he says. “But he wants to help – he wants to be part of the history, to help peacebuilding in the country. That’s a big thing for him.” He beams as he watches Kuol manage the camp. “Bul is a sleeping lion,” he says. “When he gets the opportunity, he’s going to take it.”

Unfortunately for Bul, the school holiday camp ended on a sour note – he injured his wrist in a scrimmage, which has ruled him out of the World Cup. Tonight, when his two nations meet, he will be cheering on from the stands rather than taking to the court.

But in his final interview with Guardian Australia, by phone from the emergency room as he waits for a scan, Bul has already come to terms with the devastating blow. Instead, he is on a high from the camp. “It’s deeper than basketball,” he says.