{"id":86929,"date":"2024-07-22T16:57:48","date_gmt":"2024-07-22T20:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=86929"},"modified":"2024-07-22T16:57:48","modified_gmt":"2024-07-22T20:57:48","slug":"paris-olympics-thon-maker-looking-to-join-south-sudan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/22\/paris-olympics-thon-maker-looking-to-join-south-sudan\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympics: Former Lottery Pick Looking To Join South Sudan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Sudan native <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/makerth01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thon Maker<\/a> is hoping to join his home country\u2019s national team for the Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n<h2>Former Lottery Pick Thon Maker Looking To Join South Sudan<\/h2>\n<p>Revealing his intentions on Twitter, the seven-footer\u2019s news comes on the heels of South Sudan\u2019s eye-opening exhibition game against Team USA.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Awaiting FIBA\u2019s final decision Monday, fingers crossed my appeal to get cleared for me to play with South Sudan. Would be a dream come true.\ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udfff\u2764\ufe0f \ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddf8 <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SSD?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#SSD<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Olympics?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Olympics<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Thon Maker \u2122 (@ThonMaker14) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThonMaker14\/status\/1814785783263600972?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 20, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Maker\u2019s expecting to get FIBA\u2019s final decision on Monday.<\/p>\n<h3>South Sudan Is Turning Heads<\/h3>\n<p>Led by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jonesca03.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carlik Jones<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/shayoma01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marial Shayok<\/a>, the Bright Stars nearly achieved a shocking upset against Team USA. After leading by 16 points at halftime, they lost by just one point (100-101). However, it took a vintage performance from four-time NBA MVP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a> to take them down.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s fair to say they put the world on notice.<\/p>\n<p>They did so, of course, without the likes of Maker \u2014the 10th overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. They didn\u2019t have Phoenix Suns fan favorite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bolbo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bol Bol<\/a> either. Though the skilled big man was <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/30\/nba-unicorn-bol-bol-olympic-roster-first-time\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">listed on their preliminary roster<\/a>, he\u2019s been <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/19\/phoenix-suns-big-will-not-play-during-olympics-bol-bol\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">scratched for person reasons<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, they weren\u2019t necessarily devoid of NBA talent.<\/p>\n<p>Jones, Shayok, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gabriwe01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wenyen Gabriel<\/a> have all played a handful of NBA games. That trio scored a combined 50 points, Shayok leading the way with 24 points and six triples. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thorjt01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">JT Thor<\/a>, who played for the Charlotte Hornets for three seasons, added 14 points off the bench. Duke commit Khaman Maluach, who tallied seven points, is projected to be a lottery pick next year.<\/p>\n<p>The Bright Stars are even coached by a former NBA guard in Royal Ivey. Ivey, now an assistant coach for the Houston Rockets, was also South Sudan\u2019s coach in the 2023 FIBA World Cup. It was <a href=\"https:\/\/olympics.com\/en\/news\/fiba-world-cup-2023-south-sudan-clinch-paris-2024-olympic-berth\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">through this tournament<\/a> that they qualified for the Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, South Sudan was placed in Group C with the U.S.A., Serbia, and Puerto Rico. They\u2019ll face Team USA in the Paris Olympics on Jul. 31 in a matchup many will be looking forward to.<\/p>\n<h3>What Thon Maker Brings to South Sudan<\/h3>\n<p>If added to the roster, Maker\u2019s ability to stretch the floor will undoubtedly be utilized by Ivey. In their matchup against Team USA, the Bright Stars relied heavily on the 3-ball. Last season, Maker made 38.8 percent of his 3s with the Fujian Sturgeons.<\/p>\n<p>His length and shot-blocking instincts will also help South Sudan. Defensively, the Bright Stars are able to fly around with ease. However, aside from Maluach, they lack effective rim-protectors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Sudan native Thon Maker is hoping to join his home country\u2019s national team for the Paris Olympics. Former Lottery Pick Thon Maker Looking To Join South Sudan Revealing his intentions on Twitter, the seven-footer\u2019s news comes on the heels of South Sudan\u2019s eye-opening exhibition game against Team USA. Awaiting FIBA\u2019s final decision Monday, fingers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":86942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60,1608,62,556,3],"tags":[1052,2081,960],"class_list":["post-86929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-olympics","category-basketball","category-nba","category-nba-draft","category-news","tag-olympics","tag-team-usa","tag-thon-maker"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}