His family was arm and fled in Sudan before the war. Kur Kuath studied and was discovered as a basketball player. Now he plays for the Hamburg Towers in the Bundesliga and dreams of the NBA and Olympics 2028.
The happy smile, which he almost always shows, was suddenly evaporated. The bitter defeat (81:99) in the north duel against the Baskets from Oldenburg gnawed at Kur Kuath. The 16 points of the basketball player from South Sudan could not alleviate the disappointment with the indiscountable performance of the Hamburg Towers at the end. Whatever the Hanseatic residents tried in the final quarter, the basket was nailed while they were shown by the unleashed hosts with a 23-0 start-up.
“Of course that was nothing,” the 2.08 meter -tall center was annoyed in an interview with the NDR sports club. But with all frustration, Kuath knows only too well from his own experience that there is far worse things in life. Even if the possibly already missed play-ins are a sporty setback for the club from Wilhelmsburg, which was only 13 in the table. But what does that mean in comparison with the fears and opposites that his parents lived through in Sudan, who had been stuck by war and unrest, shortly before the turn of the millennium?
As an infant on the run
When Kur, who was born in the capital of Khartum on August 12, 1998, was one year old, his family fled to Egypt and finally came to Salt Lake City in the USA. “I lived there for 20 years, and my family is still alive there,” he says, and immediately pushes after: “This is my home, but at the moment it is of course Hamburg.” He feels comfortable in the Hanseatic city and is happy to switch from the second Spanish league (champion with ICG FORCA Lleida) to the basketball Bundesliga in summer. And the towers are too.
Shot blocker with Highlight potential
“He plays with a lot of energy at both ends of the field and puts constant pressure on the ring,” says Benka Barloschky. The head coach was able to quickly convince himself of the “determined and at the same time grounded young man” to get to his team. Managing Director Marvin Willoughby (“Kur has a large inner engine and gives the team a lot of presence among the baskets”) is no less impressed by the high-jump actor, who quickly hired the call of a high-flyer and shot blocker with highlight potential.
A dream career in a different life, you might think. But Kur Kuath has not forgotten anything of what he describes today as “the worst of the worst”. After escaping to Egypt, the family was homeless for the first few months and found refuge in a church. “It has shaped me extremely to this day,” he says, and his smile looks thoughtful and a bit embarrassed.
20 children and more in an apartment
The start in Utah was also not very promising for the family – without (training) education, without a job, without money. “In the meantime we were 20 children and more in the apartment. We had nothing, but at the same time everything we needed; went through everything together and shared with each other.” A good apprenticeship in social studies, which was probably useful for him later. There should be no shortage of cure and its four siblings, and so the parents worked for a better life – and ensured that the tall son could not only study (with a degree in business administration and sociology), but also on college, in Greece, Spain and now in Hamburg a talented basketball player.
Basketball as a door opener
“Basketball is open to me a lot of doors and windows for my whole life. The sport helped me to become the man I am today,” says Kuath, who has now even been appointed national player of South Sudan. The youngest state in the world has been independent of Sudan since 2011, but also shaped by political unrest. The approximately eleven million people mostly live in bitter poverty and often suffer hunger. But there is a national basketball team that at the Olympia in Paris as a group press behind the USA and Serbia, but was the only representative of Africa to cause a sensation.
“After all the years full of war and violence, there was little to be proud of,” said Kuath. “Something beautiful happened during the games: everything stood still for a moment, peace returned to the country.” And something else happened. Over the years, he has “lost the reference to my roots a little. It was only when I returned to South Sudan that I was able to get closer to culture and get to know them again.” If he retired at some point, according to the 26-year-old, he wants to go home in the northwest of the country, where a large part of his family lives and become sedentary in Biemnom.
Kuath: Representing my country means everything to me
Everyone has their own story about flight and what it is like to be a refugee. “Those who have nothing look different. I have learned to love the little things,” he says. That he wasn’t there at the Olympics? Not so bad. “I enjoyed watching them. These boys are my brothers. I was so proud of them.”
In the meantime, Kur Kuath is also part of it – and already dreams of Olympia in 2028 in Los Angeles. “Being a national player, representing my country, means everything to me.” And of course he also wants to go to the NBA. His goal is as much as possible: “I have worked hard for a long time. Now I get the respect for it.”
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Sports club | 16.03.2025 | 10:50 p.m.
