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THIS year's FIBA World Cup will feature four debutante national men's teams including the fairytale story of South Sudan, which has much to thank the NBL for, with Sunday Dech one of five players from our league who helped their original nation through to the tournament-proper. 

Having to win just one game in the final FIBA qualifying window last week, South Sudan smacked away Senegal 83-75, Congo DR 82-61 and Egypt 97-77 for the sweep and trip to the World Cup from August 25-September 10.

Dech and fellow Adelaide 36er Deng Acouth, Cairns' Bul Kuol and Majok Deng and Illawarra's Deng Deng all played pivotal roles, as did another former NBLer with Sydney Kings, Kuany Kuany.

South Sudanese NBA players JT Thor and Wenyen Gabriel will join the team for the Worlds, as may the son of Manute Bol, Orlando Magic's Bol Bol.

The 32 qualifiers for the Worlds are: 

Africa: Angola, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, South Sudan
Americas: Brazil, Canada, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, USA, Venezuela
Asia: Australia, China, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, New Zealand, Philippines
Europe: France, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain

Latvia, a dual-European champion almost a century ago in the 1930s, joins South Sudan, Georgia and Cape Verde as first-time qualifiers. That is something of a surprise, given the strong and prolonged impact post-World War II Latvian expats had on Australian basketball and in Boomers teams. 

Cape Verde, population 571,966, now officially is the smallest nation to ever qualify for a World Cup, breaking the record set by Montenegro at World Cup 2019.

Montenegro, which has qualified yet again, had a reported population of just over 620,000 when it competed in China.

The 2023 World Cup will be contested in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia, with the next stage the allocation of the 32 teams into groups.

That answer will come on Saturday, April 29, when the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Draw takes place in Araneta Coliseum, Manila, one of the competition's host venues in the Philippines.

It's not impossible Australia and South Sudan could draw the same group, which would lead to considerable mixed emotions for many sports fans, people across the world supporting this team and underdog story.

"That just shows you how badly people want to see us succeed, what it means to the country but also how together we are," Soiuth Sudanese coach Luol Deng said.

WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS: South Sudan has continued to shock and inspire the world.

TOMORROW: Five less fashionable NBL guys always worth watching