Forty minutes, across Rumbek, Matur Dhal walked. Most days, the same journey, a pile of concrete and some worn-out rims waiting for him.

“At the time, I didn’t know there were indoor basketball courts,” Dhal, a sophomore and first-year transfer student on the Point Loma Nazarene University men’s basketball team, from Cal Poly, said. “I was just excited to play with my friends, I didn’t think about the long walk or how hot it was.”

South Sudan – the youngest country in the world – has four basketball courts, but none are indoors.

His hometown court was constructed using funds donated by former NBA player and South Sudanese basketball legend Luol Deng.

“When it rains, practice is over,” Dhal said. “When it’s hot outside, you just have to play. Sometimes you don’t have any shoes to play with, so you figure out if you have a friend you can borrow from or if you can use slides. It was like playing in the road. When you wore shoes, they would be broken within a week.”

Fourteen, the first-time cousins “dragged him to the court,” the ball felt strange in his hands, shooting was awkward but not as difficult as moving around the court with defenders draped over him.

“I was so sad because everyone was doing better than me,” Dhal remembered. “I never saw basketball on TV or touched a ball. Everyone was fast and I was slow. It was so frustrating.”

The words of his first coach, Deng Aldo, an older sibling of Luol Deng, guided Dhal then, and continue to do so now.

“One day he called me and said ‘Everybody has their own journey and you have your own path, don’t compare yourself to other people and be the best version of yourself,’” Dhal remembered. “It’s like it was yesterday.”

Late to the game, Dhal always possessed the one thing in basketball that can’t be taught: size.

“I believe in myself and keep working hard – go early, work on ball handling and shooting,” the 6 feet 11 inches tall Dhal said. “Within a few months, I was able to catch up.”

Independent since 2011, a seven-year civil war is estimated to have killed nearly half a million people in South Sudan. According to the United Nations, over 8 million South Sudanese need humanitarian aid, with infant mortality and maternal mortality rates among the highest in the world.

“He has such an amazing perspective on his life,” PLNU head men’s head basketball coach Justin Downer said. “These basketball games aren’t real pressure. Matur has had real-life pressure, not knowing where he is going to sleep, not knowing what country he is going to live in – if he is going to be able to stay here or if he is going to have to go back to South Sudan.“

“Growing up, everyone knew each other,” Dhal added. “I was young – all I knew was go to school, play sports, hang out with friends. The conflict had been going on since way before I was born. I felt safe growing up, but after independence, with civil war and different tribes and opposition for the government, in 2017 a big fight made me and my family feel unsafe.”

Dhal and his family took the route familiar to many South Sudanese, heading into neighboring Uganda. For almost a year he lived and attended school just outside of Kampala.

His happy place, again, was a rough surface and a pair of crooked hoops.

“It wasn’t a full-sized court – closer to half,” Dhal said, with a bemused exhale. “One rim was taller than the other one. But I didn’t care about that, I was just happy to play.”

A fortuitous meeting with an American basketball coach from Texas at a summer camp in South Sudan paved the way for his eventual journey to the United States.

“At the time I wasn’t interested,” Dhal said. “I had never been to another continent before. I didn’t know much English and I didn’t want to leave my friends behind for a strange world. My whole mindset of basketball is to play professionally, and in order to achieve your dream you have to make sacrifices.”

In 2018, Dhal enrolled at Paradise Honors High School in Surprise, Ariz.

“The first time I saw him play [in high school] I was like ‘there is no way this guy is this big and can move this well,’” Downer, who recruited Dhal to Cal Poly as an assistant coach, remembered. “He can absolutely fly on the court. The first time you talk to Matur, you are just blown away by his personality. He’s that way on campus. He eats with random students who are sitting by themselves. He’s making jokes to random people. It catches you off guard at first, because as a young guy that’s not what you see every day.”

Dhal spent two years at Cal Poly, redshirting his sophomore year. Looking for more playing time, he reunited with Downer, in his first year as head coach at PLNU.

“He came in with a hunger because he just hasn’t played that much college basketball,” Downer said. “He has blown everyone away with his effort and mentality. We expect him to be one of the best defensive players in the league.”

Dhal played sparingly through PLNU’s first two games of the season – a Nov. 10, opening night win against Stanislaus State and a four-point loss the following night to Cal State East Bay.

The minutes are expected to increase as the season goes on.

“Justin Downer is amazing,” Dhal said. “He gives you freedom to do a lot of things instead of tying you down. That’s what I like about his style.”

Last summer, Dhal went home for the first time since leaving, hosting a basketball camp for kids at the same ramshackle court where he first discovered the game.

“It was amazing to go back after five years,” Dhal said. “It was a lot of emotions. It is so different how life can change. I couldn’t believe a few years ago I was in their shoes.”

According to Dhal, paying it forward and helping his community is foundational to his dream of professional basketball. He reflected on meeting Luol Deng at a basketball camp after he arrived in the United States.

“He was so happy and excited to see where I had come from,” Dhal said. “He encouraged me to keep working hard and do more than he has done.”

“I ask myself ‘Is this real?’” Dhal added. “Most of the time it feels like a dream – like I’ll wake up and find myself back in the same place. Not a lot of people have stories like this. I feel blessed to be in this position.”