Duke’s Khaman Maluach, a relative newcomer to basketball who boosted his game greatly with NBA Academy experience, entered his name for the NBA Draft, had until 11:59 p.m. according to sources close to the situation on Saturday night. A 7-2 center from South Sudan who is still 18 years old, Maluach has been projected as a lottery pick in this summer’s NBA Draft. While he did not address the situation directly, Maluach posted to his Instagram story at about 10 p.m. Saturday night with lyrics from hip-hop artist Rod Wave’s 2023 song, “Long Journey.” “Dear God, I thank You for Everything You gave to us, uh You kept them devils away from us, uh And You finally made a way for us, I say”
Maluach, whose family fled war-ravaged South Sudan to live as refugees in Uganda, only began playing basketball in 2019. He attended a basketball camp organized by former Duke player Luol Deng and was invited to NBA Academy Africa in Senegal.
That move led Maluach to join the South Sudanese national team at age 16. When South Sudan qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Maluach received that valuable playing experience before he moved to the United States to begin classes at Duke last August. One of two freshman who started all 39 games for Duke, Maluach averaged 8.6 points and 6.6 rebounds while helping the Blue Devils (35-4) win the ACC championship and advance to the Final Four. He blocked 1.3 shots per game as Duke produced one of the nation’s best defensive performances for the season
