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MIAMI -- On good days, the worst hurled at Luol Deng in grade school were the racist slurs a Sudanese refugee child was far too young to comprehend yet never quite able to forget.

Samara, meaning black.

Hunga bunga, mockery for ape.

Shakshuka, epithet from a cheap north African meal.

On bad days, those classroom slurs escalated to slinging fists in the schoolyard.

"It was just constant," Deng, a Miami Heat forward, says 25 years later. "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. A lot of times, we fought because of that stuff."

Yet this was the better life.

This was the safe haven -- the relative oasis -- during the early 1990s in Alexandria, Egypt, where Deng and eight siblings fled without their parents to escape a decades-long civil war in their native Sudan between the Muslim north and Christian south. Luol's father, Aldo Deng, was a Sudanese government official who, according to British media reports, was jailed in 1989 during a violent coup by Muslim rebels who imposed Sharia law.

.... much more at link

Ice Man wrote:Lu's one cool guy. Egypt has some growing up to do.

johnnyvann840 wrote:Nice article on Luol I came across...

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/page/bla ... hteousness

This is a very long article but very well written and put together by Wallace. Worth the time.

MIAMI -- On good days, the worst hurled at Luol Deng in grade school were the racist slurs a Sudanese refugee child was far too young to comprehend yet never quite able to forget.

Samara, meaning black.

Hunga bunga, mockery for ape.

Shakshuka, epithet from a cheap north African meal.

On bad days, those classroom slurs escalated to slinging fists in the schoolyard.

"It was just constant," Deng, a Miami Heat forward, says 25 years later. "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. A lot of times, we fought because of that stuff."

Yet this was the better life.

This was the safe haven -- the relative oasis -- during the early 1990s in Alexandria, Egypt, where Deng and eight siblings fled without their parents to escape a decades-long civil war in their native Sudan between the Muslim north and Christian south. Luol's father, Aldo Deng, was a Sudanese government official who, according to British media reports, was jailed in 1989 during a violent coup by Muslim rebels who imposed Sharia law.

.... much more at link

He won't mention, when as a toddler in Sudan, being taught to seek cover under his bed at the sound of gunfire. He'll also bypass those beatings at school in Egypt. And it's not even that time the Bulls' plane caught fire and lost two engines amid an emergency landing two years ago. Instead, it was in a hospital as his body failed him and his faith waned in Chicago's medical staff, a feeling that lingers among some Bulls players.

Fearing meningitis after Deng became ill heading into the 2013 playoffs, team doctors ordered a spinal tap test, which came back negative. Deng was released from the hospital and cleared to play during Chicago's second-round series against Miami. But Deng continued to feel terrible. Only by going outside the team -- including, according to sources, back-channel help from other teams -- did he discover he had been leaking fluid since the diagnostic procedure.

The entire process called into question why he was ever cleared to play. Citing privacy issues, the Bulls have repeatedly declined media requests to address Deng's condition at the time. But Deng insists it felt like the closest he's ever come to death.

"I've never been in a situation where I was afraid for my life," Deng said. "That's how deep it was. The whole situation, there wasn't trust. There was miscommunication between the team and doctors. I wasn't told the proper procedure to take care of myself. It was just mishandled."

"I remember my friend coming over and was like, 'It's a spinal leak.' My friend was calling the team doctor and her response was like, 'I don't think so.' And my friend told the doctor, 'If you don't do (something), I'm taking him to a different hospital.' So I called my agent and asked for a different hospital."

Mech Engineer wrote:It is really disgusting to read this about the medical staff. When Deng says his friend called the team doctor, is it Dr. Cole or somebody else? It gives me a pause on the Derrick's injuries. Deng says something is wrong and they say "no". It sounds more like a ego trip by the team doctor/medical staff. They do not want to be doubted on their decisions.

I am not concerned about a mistaken diagnosis but when the patient says something is not right, you still hold on to your old decision??? That's concerning and good for Derrick to say screw them because I don't feel right. But, Derrick's reputation has been damaged in the media and he is in a no-win situation.

BoocheeMan1117 wrote:

Mech Engineer wrote:It is really disgusting to read this about the medical staff. When Deng says his friend called the team doctor, is it Dr. Cole or somebody else? It gives me a pause on the Derrick's injuries. Deng says something is wrong and they say "no". It sounds more like a ego trip by the team doctor/medical staff. They do not want to be doubted on their decisions.

I am not concerned about a mistaken diagnosis but when the patient says something is not right, you still hold on to your old decision??? That's concerning and good for Derrick to say screw them because I don't feel right. But, Derrick's reputation has been damaged in the media and he is in a no-win situation.

Exactly. Bulls medical and training staff are horrible. If we had the staff of the Phoenix Suns, we'd probably be two time champs by now

Mech Engineer wrote:

BoocheeMan1117 wrote:

Mech Engineer wrote:It is really disgusting to read this about the medical staff. When Deng says his friend called the team doctor, is it Dr. Cole or somebody else? It gives me a pause on the Derrick's injuries. Deng says something is wrong and they say "no". It sounds more like a ego trip by the team doctor/medical staff. They do not want to be doubted on their decisions.

I am not concerned about a mistaken diagnosis but when the patient says something is not right, you still hold on to your old decision??? That's concerning and good for Derrick to say screw them because I don't feel right. But, Derrick's reputation has been damaged in the media and he is in a no-win situation.

Exactly. Bulls medical and training staff are horrible. If we had the staff of the Phoenix Suns, we'd probably be two time champs by now

I wouldn't compare to Phoenix or somebody else. That is more of a myth, IMO. They might have done some good things in Phoenix but if somebody is injury prone, they cannot save him like with Amare. If Noah, Rose are injury prone....you cannot save them.

But, I think it is more than their qualification(which I think they are qualified). It is the communication, ego which is worrying, IMO. I am sure the Phoenix doctors make mistakes too but it is about making sure you communicate, listen which apparently didn't seem to happen unless we are missing something.

Mech Engineer wrote:It is really disgusting to read this about the medical staff. When Deng says his friend called the team doctor, is it Dr. Cole or somebody else? It gives me a pause on the Derrick's injuries. Deng says something is wrong and they say "no". It sounds more like a ego trip by the team doctor/medical staff. They do not want to be doubted on their decisions.

I am not concerned about a mistaken diagnosis but when the patient says something is not right, you still hold on to your old decision??? That's concerning and good for Derrick to say screw them because I don't feel right. But, Derrick's reputation has been damaged in the media and he is in a no-win situation.

"I remember my friend coming over and was like, 'It's a spinal leak.' My friend was calling the team doctor and her response was like, 'I don't think so.' And my friend told the doctor, 'If you don't do (something), I'm taking him to a different hospital.' So I called my agent and asked for a different hospital."

samwana wrote:

Mech Engineer wrote:It is really disgusting to read this about the medical staff. When Deng says his friend called the team doctor, is it Dr. Cole or somebody else? It gives me a pause on the Derrick's injuries. Deng says something is wrong and they say "no". It sounds more like a ego trip by the team doctor/medical staff. They do not want to be doubted on their decisions.

I am not concerned about a mistaken diagnosis but when the patient says something is not right, you still hold on to your old decision??? That's concerning and good for Derrick to say screw them because I don't feel right. But, Derrick's reputation has been damaged in the media and he is in a no-win situation.

I don't think it was Dr Cole, b/c if you read the quote:

"I remember my friend coming over and was like, 'It's a spinal leak.' My friend was calling the team doctor and her response was like, 'I don't think so.' And my friend told the doctor, 'If you don't do (something), I'm taking him to a different hospital.' So I called my agent and asked for a different hospital."

It says her response. I don't think Jen was already on the staff there, but it should be a women.


This was what was bothering me as well, really horrid story and it wasn't the first time they botched a diagnosis with Deng.

It would be a real good thing for all Bulls players to get a second opinion on all their injuries, and if there is still some resentment left with the other players it is probably a good thing to change up the medical staff.

Mech Engineer wrote:

samwana wrote:

Mech Engineer wrote:It is really disgusting to read this about the medical staff. When Deng says his friend called the team doctor, is it Dr. Cole or somebody else? It gives me a pause on the Derrick's injuries. Deng says something is wrong and they say "no". It sounds more like a ego trip by the team doctor/medical staff. They do not want to be doubted on their decisions.

I am not concerned about a mistaken diagnosis but when the patient says something is not right, you still hold on to your old decision??? That's concerning and good for Derrick to say screw them because I don't feel right. But, Derrick's reputation has been damaged in the media and he is in a no-win situation.

I don't think it was Dr Cole, b/c if you read the quote:

"I remember my friend coming over and was like, 'It's a spinal leak.' My friend was calling the team doctor and her response was like, 'I don't think so.' And my friend told the doctor, 'If you don't do (something), I'm taking him to a different hospital.' So I called my agent and asked for a different hospital."

It says her response. I don't think Jen was already on the staff there, but it should be a women.


This was what was bothering me as well, really horrid story and it wasn't the first time they botched a diagnosis with Deng.

It would be a real good thing for all Bulls players to get a second opinion on all their injuries, and if there is still some resentment left with the other players it is probably a good thing to change up the medical staff.

I think it might be just the secretary or somebody taking the phone call because by all accounts, Dr. Cole is the team doctor.

Mech Engineer wrote:It is really disgusting to read this about the medical staff. When Deng says his friend called the team doctor, is it Dr. Cole or somebody else? It gives me a pause on the Derrick's injuries. Deng says something is wrong and they say "no". It sounds more like a ego trip by the team doctor/medical staff. They do not want to be doubted on their decisions.

I am not concerned about a mistaken diagnosis but when the patient says something is not right, you still hold on to your old decision??? That's concerning and good for Derrick to say screw them because I don't feel right. But, Derrick's reputation has been damaged in the media and he is in a no-win situation.

The implication in some of what you read and hear about Luol Deng's injury is that it's not much of an injury. And if it's not much of an injury, then it doesn't take a GPS device and a full tank of gas to reach the conclusion that he's being a baby.

The Bulls got a lot of public-relations mileage out of a statement they released a week ago about Deng's condition. It was widely viewed as a fed-up team standing up to a pampered professional athlete.

"He has been restricted from high-level activity since [Feb. 28]," team physician Brian Cole was quoted as saying. "At this point, he will undergo 'active rest,' meaning that he will be encouraged to challenge himself physically, and if symptoms remain minimal, he will be allowed an expeditious return to play."

That the Bulls were going to encourage Deng to "challenge himself physically" was interpreted to mean: "Can you believe this guy? What a wimp."

There's a lesson we can't seem to learn in our little corner of the world: Never question the severity of someone's injury. You have no idea what an athlete is experiencing. You have no idea how much pain he's trying to overcome. And there's always the chance the diagnosis isn't complete.

All of the above is true with Deng's situation. The Bulls announced Tuesday he will be out at least two weeks with the stress fracture, and there's a possibility he will need surgery. That comes on the heels of news that Deng recently met with an orthopedic surgeon who has extensive knowledge of stress fractures of the lower leg.

What is Deng's team of doctors saying now?

"I just have to avoid as much weight as I can on my leg," he said.

So running would be bad. Cutting would be bad. Jumping would be very, very bad.

In other words, everything a basketball player does is potentially harmful for someone with Deng's condition.

This is the injury that many people thought Deng was using to shirk his duty.