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 (appro ...

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

Luol Deng Luol Ajou Deng (born 16 April 1985) is a South Sudanese–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 South Sudan that was then part of Republ ...

College basketball

The 6’11" center played his university basketball in

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

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 system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

Huskies 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 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 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 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 Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, 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 Central Division of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded on January 16 ...

of the

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

. Deng returned to the Heat on 7 December 2007 to replace Carlton Aaron, 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. He was the head coach of the South Sudanes team Fox Basketball Club in the Elite 16 of the 2025 BAL qualification.

References

External links

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College 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 in Slovakia British expatriate basketball people in the United States Centers (basketball) Dinka people English men's basketball players Fairfield Stags men's basketball players Caledonia Gladiators 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 Refugees in Egypt South Sudanese expatriate basketball people in the United States Sportspeople from Guildford South Sudanese refugees UConn Huskies men's basketball players PAWS London Capital players