VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France — Luol Deng, a former NBA player and architect of South Sudan’s men’s basketball program that reached its first Olympics this summer, accused officials of bias toward his players and called for greater African representation among referees after his team’s historic run ended with a 96-85 loss to Serbia on Saturday night.
Deng, who is the president of the South Sudan Basketball Federation and assistant coach of the team, pointed out the disparity in free throws between the two teams (31-6) and made it clear that he believed there were underlying reasons for the huge gap.
“I’ve been in a lot of games in my career, and I’ve been coaching for two and a half years, (and) I thought it was deliberate — blatantly,” Deng, who has funded the program out of his own pocket for years now, told a group of reporters in the media mixed zone after the game. “We couldn’t be as aggressive as they were. I know Serbia is known for their basketball. They’ve been great for many years. The way they play, it’s almost like the referees know them. So it’s normal that the referees, if they know certain players, let them play their style?”
“As soon as our players adopt their style of play, we get sanctioned every time. It’s almost as if there is a discourse and a stigma that these African players are aggressive. And as soon as they are just as aggressive, the sanctions disappear.”
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Luol Deng criticizes refereeing in South Sudan’s defeat to Serbia: ‘We couldn’t be so aggressive’
