LeBron James controls the end of the game as Team USA comes from 16 down to beat South Sudan.

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LONDON – This had the potential to lead to the second biggest surprise in international basketball history.

The first? Easy: A young, developing country like South Sudan making it this far, paired with the vaunted Team USA on its way to the 2024 Olympics.

This is a team built from scratch and in a hurry, and training for these Games outside of its borders — there are no indoor courts in South Sudan — forced LeBron James into championship mode for an exhibition match on Saturday.

What happened at the O2 Arena was a coming together of two forces. South Sudan played the best game of their youth; a team only a few years old and making its first trip to the Olympics, full of refugees from Sudan. And the other team, the 43-point favourites, had, in the words of coach Steve Kerr, “let our guard down as a team and as a squad.”

So US 101, South Sudan 100 was a game primarily controlled by South Sudan. LeBron saves with game-winning shot with eight seconds leftAfter two missed goals from South Sudan, the tension continued until the final whistle.

It’s worth noting that this doesn’t count as an exhibition match, but try to explain that to everyone involved. Because it certainly looked that way when he got serious in the second half and brought out the best in both benches.

“Wild game,” Stephen Curry said. “They played really hard. It was cool to see how we responded. LeBron had a great finish toward the end.”

South Sudan poured in points — easy, hard, crazy, long-range — to build a 16-point lead in the second quarter. The U.S. struggled from three, missing 12 of its first 13 shots. That’s when the Americans faced a decision in the second half: Would they play to win this one, even for an exhibition game? The choice was easy.

Kerr started the third quarter with a stronger defensive second five. Anthony Davis’ interior protection and presence changed the tone of the game. The deficit began to narrow. On the bench, LeBron stirred, got up from his seat, and did a few stretches in an open area of ​​the ground.

“Look,” Kerr said. “The whole team was embarrassed in the first half. He wasn’t too happy that I didn’t start him in the third quarter. I looked over to the bench and I could see he was dying to get on the field.”

Once the starters were back in the game, a sense of order was restored. Jrue Holiday recovered a ball that had gone out of bounds and passed it to LeBron for a dunk. Devin Booker tied the game with a 3-pointer with 58 seconds left in the third quarter, then Curry gave the United States the lead with a 3-pointer.

But South Sudan did not give up; on the contrary, the stubborn team managed to close the gap in the fourth quarter and took a one-point lead with 20 seconds left in the game, when JT Thor scored a shot over LeBron.

There was silence at the O2 and a timeout from the US, both completely unexpected, exhibition match or not. Where did this come from? How did this happen?

You can start reading about South Sudan here: The country gained independence from Sudan in 2011. The following year, Sudan’s most successful player, Luol Deng, who fled the war-torn country at age 5 and spent most of his NBA career with the Bulls, played for Great Britain in the 2012 Olympics because South Sudan did not have a team.

When the movement to build basketball infrastructure in South Sudan began, Deng answered the call and became its executive director. The team initially had no funds, so Deng financed the team by purchasing equipment and supporting travel.

And he had no players; he had to build a squad, encouraging players with dual residency in other countries to return home and be pioneers.

“When you think about what that team had to overcome to get to the Olympics, I’m really happy for Luol,” Kerr said. “They made a good team despite the adversity.”

South Sudan qualified for these Olympics by beating 11-time African champions Angola at last year’s World CupIt became the lowest-ranked team to do so since 2004. It was a dramatic rise from nowhere for a team that only had two NBA players in the back of the rotation, Thor and Wenyen Gabriel.

And after LeBron went into isolation and gave the US a one-point lead with a driving dunk with nine seconds left, South Sudan had a chance to shake up international basketball with one last push. The sold-out crowd at the O2, who had previously chanted “USA”, began to shift their allegiance to the big underdog, if only to witness it for a moment.

A missed shot was followed by an even closer shot – which Anthony Edwards could have saved with an arm drag – that dashed high hopes.

Short-time NBA guard Carlik Jones had a 15-point, 11-rebound, 11-assist triple-double and was a powerhouse all night for the U.S. LeBron’s former Lakers teammate Gabriel had 11 points, and so did Marial Shayok (24 points). Again, this is not a great team, but a determined team.

“The ending was good for us,” Kerr said. “It’s a good reminder to teams that when we play against them, it’s the biggest game of their lives. This was the first game where we felt like we were in doubt. It’s good for us to feel that now. We’ll feel it again. It’s good to be challenged.”

The decision to switch to LeBron on the final possession was strategic.

“We wanted to get him the ball,” Kerr said. “We had some options. But the goal is to get LeBron down. He has a very competitive spirit.”

LeBron scored 25 points in 23 minutes and remained calm while his teammates remained calm. Davis had another double-double off the bench. Curry was the only USA player who wasn’t cold on three-pointers, going 3-of-9 and hitting a key three late in the game.

Kerr remained diplomatic after the close fight.

“If we don’t play the right way, if we don’t come with the right energy and focus, no matter who we play, we can get beat,” he said. “But we have the equipment, and if we can find it, we can beat teams. It’s a reminder of two things: If we don’t play our best, we can get beat.”

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Shaun Powell has been covering the NBA for over 25 years. You can email him Hereto find archive here And follow him on X.

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