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Why isn’t Bol Bol playing for South Sudan in the USA Basketball Showcase?

Phoenix Suns center Bol is the most familiar name on the roster of South Sudan, who will also face Team USA at the 2024 Olympics.

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Team USA are going to become very familiar with South Sudan in the next few weeks. After facing the East African nation in the USA Basketball Showcase in London on Saturday, the teams will also play against each other in the group phase of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Even the most ardent followers of the sport might not be overly familiar with many of the names on the South Sudan roster, with the exception of Bol Bol, the Phoenix Suns center.

Under normal circumstances, the 24-year-old would be South Sudan’s star man as they take on the USA twice and go into the Olympics for the first time in the country’s short history. South Sudan officially gained independence from Sudan in 2011, and have only ever had five athletes competing in two editions of the Games (2016 and 2020).

Will Bol Bol play for South Sudan at the 2024 Olympics?

However, their hopes of causing an upset have been dealt a huge blow by Bol withdrawing from the roster for both the USA Basketball Showcase and the upcoming Olympics, which get underway on Friday, 26 July.

Ajou Deng, an assistant coach for the national team, revealed to ESPN that the Suns star wouldn’t be featuring in the Games because of unspecified “personal reasons”.

Bol, whose family moved to Connecticut when he was two years old, was cut from the United States roster for the 2017 FIBA U-19 Basketball World Cup and eventually opted to represent the nation of his birth.

However, he also missed the last FIBA World Cup in 2023, which took place just after he had been left go by the Orlando Magic and joined the Suns on a one-year deal. At that point, he opted not to play in the tournament, instead choosing to focus on his NBA career. He re-signed with Phoenix earlier this month.

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