Luol Deng: College| What happened to| Career earnings

In 2016, the Los Angeles Lakers signed short forward Luol Deng to a four-year deal worth NZ$105m and despite the fact that he left the team for two years. Today we will discuss about Luol Deng: College| What happened to| Career earnings.

Luol Deng: College| What happened to| Career earnings

Luol Aju Deng OBE (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 what is now South Sudan, Deng fled the country with his family as a child, eventually settling in the United Kingdom. He became a British citizen in 2006, and played for the Great Britain national team.

College

Luol Deng enjoyed a long career in the NBA, but his journey there was not an easy one. The Sudanese native was born in a country that was facing a civil war to end the persecution and genocide experienced by its residents.

But he managed to escape from the war-ravaged nation at an early age, and started a better life with his family. He picked up basketball as a kid and did well enough to play college basketball big time and then make it to the NBA. Watch the incredible story of Deng’s journey to become an NBA superstar here.

Luol Deng’s father was an acting government minister in the Sudanese parliament and was able to move the boy, his mother and his eight siblings to Alexandria, Egypt, in 1988. Deng was just 3 years old at the time, so he says he doesn’t remember anything about Sudan.

When his family was in Egypt, Deng recalls that everyone was “stuffed into an apartment with only three rooms,” and he remembered his father “and was worried about him.” In Egypt, Deng was introduced to NBA player Manut Bol, who became the young player’s first – and most important – basketball mentor.

Bol taught Deng the fundamentals of the game and laid the foundation for becoming a great player. Deng’s father was imprisoned and eventually released in 1993, when he was reunited with the family and they fled to England for sanctuary.

While there, Deng further discovered his love for sports, especially football. But he caught the attention of an American basketball scout, who offered the teenager a scholarship to Blair Academy in New Jersey, so Deng moved to his fourth country at just 14 years old.

What happened to

Luol Deng was once an NBA great but he never reached his full potential. One of the major factors behind his downfall was injury. He hasn’t played more than 70 matches since the 2015-16 season.

The South Sudanese citizen suffered a spinal tap in 2013. He was diagnosed with meningitis, but was later misdiagnosed by the Chicago Bulls. With fluid leaking from his spine, Deng almost lost his life but luckily, made a full recovery.

Luol Deng was signed with the Lakers for a lucrative $72 million deal for four seasons. He along with Timothy Mozgov was the highest paid player on the roster after the retirement of Kobe Bryant. Soon after Magic Johnson became president of the Lakers, Deng’s career went downhill with a coach, Luke Walton, benching him to young Brandon Ingram.

Deng did not even make the team bench while stuck on a large contract and occupying many of the team’s salary positions. In October 2020, the Lakers submitted a career-ending injury application to have their salaries released from the official team books. The NBA rejected the application and Deng continues to be paid in retained earnings to this day. they got $5 million.

Career earnings