“No African Referees”: Luol Deng Vents Over Injustice vs Serbia as Paris Olympics Campaign Ends in Heartbreak

“Travesty, robbery, injustice”- these words echoed through Stade Pierre-Mauroy after South Sudan crashed out of the 2024 Paris Olympics. This year’s event has already seen its fair share of controversies in boxing, swimming, and soccer, and now basketball has been added to the list. That’s as far as South Sudan and Luol Deng are concerned. The highest-ranked African team from last year’s World Cup will now fly back home after their dream was crushed. And they are not going away quietly, to say the least.

South Sudan needed to avoid losing by more than 2 points in their final Group C game against Serbia. When the buzzer sounded at the end of the night, the score read Serbia 96, South Sudan 85. Since then, the tears haven’t stopped flowing from the eyes of Wenyen Gabriel, Bul Kuol, and their teammates. This prompted Luol Deng, former NBA star and South Sudan basketball President to sound off on the Olympics committee over the injustice they suffered.

In a passionate post-game rant, Deng raised the question over officiating decisions, voicing the lack of diversity among the decision-makers on the court. “If that game is fair, right there, we have a better chance,” Deng said. Luol claimed that the foul discrepancy was deliberate and asked why there were no African referees at the Olympics. Serbia was awarded 31 free throws in this game compared to 6 that went South Sudan’s way.

Luol further added, “It’s a narrative and a stigma that’s out there that African players are aggressive…I don’t know why there’s no African referees in the Olympics. It’s 2024. If we’re representing the continent, then we’ve got to be represented fully. That’s something that we’ve got to keep working on. But if these referees are not familiar with our game or our style, I don’t know what the world championship or the Olympics is. Is it just the European style, and we’re not allowed to be aggressive?”.

South Sudan, who are ranked 33rd in the FIBA rankings, were only 3 points behind Serbia at halftime (47-44)! Royal Ivey ensured his team maintained their foothold, and they were successful in doing so. That’s because Nikola Jokic and Co. entered the fourth quarter with a mere 5-point lead!

A steal by Peter Jok followed by an alley-oop by Wenyen got the South Sudan supporters to believe in their quest to win a medal. However, the shooting spurt after that just kept going against them. They tried and tried to claw their way back, but a 19-3 spurt (at that moment) was too hard to bridge.

However, keep in mind their on-court challenges, Royal Ivey was having a tough time on the sidelines too. He revealed that the referees kept complaining about his players standing in the bench area, threatening the mastermind with an ejection. The shocking part was that the Serbians did the same, while not getting any side-eye from the officials. Ivey was furious over the decisions and said, “I need an answer. Explain it to me. I’m baffled…I’m not one to complain or bicker about calls and stuff. But this was blatant.”

So far, this tournament has failed to answer this question, as there was no lack of controversial decision-making in the group stages.

Paris Olympics marred with questionable officiating decisions

We’ve already seen controversies surrounding FIBA officiating in France’s game against Japan. Rui Hachimura was hard done by a second tech foul called against his name, resulting in an ejection. The soft nature of the call stirred controversy as the NBA fans vehemently disagreed with the decision. “Yep they even hate the Lakers overseas,” an X user wrote, breaking the internet. France came out on top in that game, which led to Japan’s subsequent exit from the tournament.

Even during Team USA’s games, controversial moments crept up. LeBron James has been seen multiple times disputing the officials, which even prompted Dwyane Wade, who was on commentary duty, to highlight the issue. “LeBron wins a lot of arguments against the ref..he won again,” the legend said. The matter of concern is ‘a lot’ in that statement. Does the 39-year-old focus on spearheading the hoopers to their 5th consecutive gold or worry about on-court decisions that might go against their dream?

With the tournament rolling to the quarterfinal stage, the community will expect the Olympics to pick up its referring standards, hoping for a knockout stage free of controversy. After all, no one appreciates a gold medal tainted by turmoil.

For more interesting stories, watch the Dual Threat Show hosted by BG12 where the prodigy puts Bulldogs star Silas Demary Jr under the pump with loaded NBA questions and more in this video below.