Dech's 'best decision ever'

Sunday Dech says his decision to play for South Sudan in the recent FIBA World Cup qualification tournament was the best of his life.

The 196cm guard said after getting selected for the Boomers squad, the situation worked out to represent his native country.

“It happened at the same time as all the Australia stuff happened, all the qualifying windows opened at the same time,” Dech said.

“I made the shortlist for the Boomers and at the same time South Sudan reached out.

“After talking with my family and my partner Charlotte I feel like it was the right decision to go back to Africa after 21 years and represent my people.

“I think it’s definitely the best decision I have made.”

South Sudan are 6-0 after two qualifying brackets with Dech coming in for the past three matches in Rwanda, winning MVP of the tournament.

“It’s our first qualifiers and to play the level we are and be the new kids on the block it’s a dream come true,” he said.

“It’s something we are definitely cherishing because we are blazing a trail for the next guys to come and put their imprints on it as well.

“The guys in my team make my job very easy. I bring it up the court and control the offense, so I got to do a little bit of everything during the tournament.

“The run and gun style of play really suits our attributes.”

Former Chicago Bulls NBA star and South Sudan Basketball Federation president Luol Deng had been trying to recruit Dech for the past few years.

“The timing just had never worked out,” Dech said.

“Actually, Manny Malou was recruiting me pretty heavily last off-season.

“After Luol reached out again and chatting to my family and thought it’s something I want to do.

“I went over there, and it was an unbelievable experience.”

The 28-year-old was one of six current or former NBL players on the South Sudan roster and he said the team’s chemistry could be attributed to the connection.

“There was a lot of us out there, there is a lot of South Sudanese players in Australia and a lot of youngsters still to come up,” Dech said.

“It’s cool to play with those guys rather than playing against them all the time.

“You get over there and you have less than a week to prepare so to know most of the guys tendencies and scouting them for all those years I knew exactly where the guys wanted the ball.”

The next qualification window for South Sudan is at the end of August with 12 countries left to fill the five FIBA World Cup spots.

“There are two pools of six left, we are at the top of our pool as all the points carry over and hopefully after another successful campaign we can make it to the World Cup next year,” Dech said.

The dream of South Sudan playing against the Australian Boomers on the world stage has already entered Dech’s mind.

“That was the first thing I thought of when I got the invite, got over there and started winning games,” Dech said.

“To play against a lot of my friends who will be on that team and that’s our second home as well.

“It would be awesome if that was to happen, and we will talk it into existence.”

Dech could possibly be matching up against 36ers and current Boomer captain Mitch McCarron.

“Lining up against Macca, I think I know his game well,” Dech said.