His high school coach remembers the 1.98m kid swishing 3-pointers in dress shoes and slacks, unfazed by jet lag after arriving from England the previous night.
Luol Deng was 14 and making quite an impression at Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey -- one of several stops on a remarkable journey that began in war-torn Sudan, wound through Egypt and England before arriving at a leading role with the Chicago Bulls.
"Things just happen," Deng said. "I think you just live your life. I'm just living my life, and it's just getting better as I'm getting older. For me and my family, it's been great. We've stuck together through thick and thin."
PHOTO: AP
Chicago finished the NBA regular season with the third-best record in the Eastern Conference, earning a first-round playoff matchup with the Miami Heat.
In his third year, the 2.06m Deng enjoyed a breakout season.
He averaged 18.8 points -- up from 14.3 last season. And his field-goal percentage jumped from 46.3 percent to 51.7 percent.
The forward's progression has been long and steady, a process built on a maturity that belies the fact that he has just turned 22.
Deng had to grow up quickly, moving from Sudan to Egypt and England before spending his high school and university years an ocean away from his parents.
Luol was five when his family was forced to flee Sudan and spent the next four years in Alexandria, Egypt, where he got his first exposure to basketball.
Fellow Dinka tribe member Manute Bol stopped by one day and started showing the area boys some drills. Luol didn't participate, but his older brother Ajou did and started teaching him. It was Ajou who helped get Luol involved with the Brixton Topcats basketball club in London when he was 10, after their father was granted political asylum in England.
Jimmy Rogers, Brixton's coach, saw a quick study with good natural instincts. And the more Luol played, the stronger his addiction to basketball became. At 13, Deng was selected to England's 15-and-under national teams in basketball and soccer.
Ajou was already in the US where he played at the University of Connecticut and Luol wound up at Blair Academy, where Joe Mantegna immediately realized he had a special player.
He saw a boy wearing "parochial school clothes, doing things I'd never seen a 14-year-old do" in a 3-on-3 game during open gym. And he was doing it after arriving late the previous night from England, barely sleeping and then going to classes.
Duke had Deng for only one year before he jumped to the NBA, but it was a good one. He was the second-leading scorer and rebounder, and Duke went to the 2004 US college championship semi-finals.
Deng's dedication extends beyond the court.
In December, the Bulls presented a US$100,000 check on his behalf to the World Food Program to help feed more than 3,000 school children in Darfur and Deng is active in the Nothing But Nets program that fights malaria in Africa.
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