A biography for Luol Denghasn’t been written yet.
“When we were in Egypt, we were refugees. My family and I were homeless. For five years, out of all of the countries in the world that my father was contacting, the only one that took us in was England.”
“A lot of basketball players have tendinitis. It's known as jumper's knee, and it just comes from all the pounding our knees take.”
“I always said if I didn't focus on basketball, then it would have been football. I was pretty good and was asked to go to England trials.”
“I was just a lanky kid, just tall.”
“I love a fry-up. They don't do them in the States.”
“I remember when I was a kid, as a refugee in Egypt, every day, there was always a hope that we'd get to leave tomorrow and we'd get to go somewhere.”
“I don't mind someone saying I'm not good enough. It hurts more when someone says you're faking an injury.”
“I had this one teacher, and as I got older and translated things he used to say, it was racist and hatred stuff he was saying toward me and my brother.”
“I play the same, contract or no contract, because trade-talk is part of basketball.”
“There are so many kids in Africa who adore these athletes in the NBA and see themselves in them, even though we're so far removed.”
“From where I came from, the way I was raised, when somebody does something for you, you always want to give something back to them.”
“There are a lot of people you never hear about that helped me a lot with my career and helped me become who I am that I've known for a long time and I still stay in touch with.”
“The best thing I learned from Manute was to be selfless. He was always about his people. He was about helping others.”
“I think injuries happen. You can prevent a lot of them, but some of them you can't.”
“I know how to put the ball in the hoop.”
“I was very skilled at football at a young age in Egypt. I never played with a real ball. We used rolled-up socks or a balloon with a towel ducktaped to it, and we played on concrete in bare feet.”
“Being from the Sudan, there is a lot of stuff going on in Sudan, so I try to do a lot there with my foundation. That's my way of giving back.”
“When people ask me where I'm from, I say I'm from the Sudan. But when they ask what my hometown is, I say London. It's where I lived, and it's where my whole family lived.”
“I believe leaving school early was the right decision to make, but at first, I wasn't sure. But my coaches told me to follow my heart and there wouldn't be any regrets, and that's exactly what I did.”
“When I look back at 19, coming here to Chicago, some of the things that were said, some of the stuff that you deal with - at 19 years old, it's a lot of pressure.”