Ajou Deng (born 22 March 1978) is a Sudanese-British retired professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player and current coach. He is the son of Aldo Deng, a former Sudanese politician and is the brother of

Luol Deng Luol Ajou Deng (born 16 April 1985) is a British former professional basketball player. He was a two-time NBA All-Star and was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team in 2012. Born in what is now South Sudan, Deng fled the country with his f ...

, an

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

player who was also his teammate on Great Britain's national team.

College basketball

The 6’11"

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

played his university basketball in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

with the Fairfield Stags from 2001 through 2003 after two years playing for the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

Huskies Husky is a general term for a dog used in the polar regions, primarily and specifically for work as sled dogs. It refers to a traditional northern type, notable for its cold-weather tolerance and overall hardiness. Modern racing huskies that mai ...

from 1999 to 2001. While playing basketball for the Uconn Huskies, his nickname was "Juice." His career was known for not measuring up to the tremendous amount of hype that preceded his arrival at the Huskies. College basketball analysts like Billy Packer and Dick Vitale once predicted that he could be the best player ever there.

Professional basketball

After graduating from Fairfield, Deng returned to Great Britain, where his family had been granted asylum, and joined the professional team

Brighton Bears Brighton Bears was a British basketball team based in Brighton, Sussex. From 1984 to 1999 the club was known as the Worthing Bears and was based in the town of Worthing, 12 miles west of Brighton. The Bears played in the top-flight British Bask ...

for the 2004-05 season. In 37 games Deng scored 428 points, an average of 11.57 per game, and averaged nearly 10 rebounds and 1.5 blocks. He started the following season with the

Scottish Rocks The Caledonia Gladiators are a professional basketball club in Glasgow, Scotland. The Gladiators compete in the British Basketball League, the top tier of British basketball. Since 2012, the team have played their home games at the Emirates Ar ...

before joining the Guildford Heat. He played 37 games during the 2005-06 season, scored 398 points – an average of 10.76 per game – and had 6.43 rebounds and one block per game. Deng was named BBL player of the month in March 2006 and was a BBL All-Star that year as well. He won a

BBL Cup The British Basketball League Cup, often shortened to the BBL Cup, is an annual cup competition for British basketball teams organised by the United Kingdom's top professional league, the British Basketball League. It is one of two peripheral c ...

winner’s medal with Brighton his first year as a professional. Deng sat out the 2006-07 season with an ankle injury. He underwent treatment in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, United States, where he stayed with his brother,

, a forward for the

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January 1 ...

of the

. Deng returned to the Heat on 7 December 2007 to replace

Carlton Aaron Carlton may refer to: People * Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname * Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy * Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...

, who had recently been cut by the team. Deng left the Guildford Heat in February 2008 before the BBL Trophy Final to join Slavia Tu Kosice in Slovakia.

Coaching career

In 2020, Deng was the head coach of the

South Sudan national basketball team The South Sudan national basketball team is the national basketball team representing South Sudan. Its official name is South Sudan Basketball Federation. It was established in May 2011, and became a member of FIBA in December 2013. They are nic ...

References

External links

Guildford Heat ProfileCollege stats for Huskies and Stags
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deng, Ajou 1978 births Living people Black British sportsmen Brighton Bears players British Basketball League players British expatriate basketball people British expatriate basketball people in the United States Centers (basketball) Dinka people English men's basketball players English expatriates in the United States Expatriate sportspeople in Slovakia Fairfield Stags men's basketball players Glasgow Rocks players Surrey Scorchers players Milford Academy alumni Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) People from Western Bahr el Ghazal South Sudanese men's basketball players South Sudanese emigrants to the United Kingdom South Sudanese expatriates in Egypt South Sudanese expatriates in the United States Sportspeople from Guildford South Sudanese refugees UConn Huskies men's basketball players