Duop Reath’s immense gratitude for rise from refugee camp to Boomers Olympic glory and NBL playoffs

“My expectation going in was just to go out there and compete,” Reath says. “Just to play as hard as I can and just to be myself.

“I think that’s something that kind of helped me through the process, me being myself, just playing as hard as I can, and the guys around accepted me for who I am. And that’s all you can do as a person.

“The first initial reaction to everything was, ‘You’re here with some of the best players in the world. This is going to be a great experience, regardless of what happens. If it goes good or goes bad, at the end of the day, this is a blessing. I’ve got to take advantage of it and be grateful for it’; so I was very grateful. I just wanted to be grateful and just go out there and compete and see what happens.”

Reath played his way on to Brian Goorjian’s final 12-man roster. And the Boomers held off Slovenia in the bronze medal game to become the first Australian men’s basketball team to reach the Olympic podium.

“That whole experience, it was just unreal for me,” Reath says. “Just to be able to see it first-hand, experience it, play, be a part of the team, it was unreal.

“I think everyone still feels the same way and the atmosphere around the team, being around those guys and how we got along with each other was something that was very special, too.

“And us being able to achieve that, the result that we got, was not a very big surprise because I feel like the energy and the connection that we had in the locker room was very special. It was a special team.”

*****

‘Grateful’ is a word that Reath, a big man for the Illawarra Hawks, uses often.

He was not quite nine when he and his family – his parents and four children – reached a refugee camp in Kenya after leaving their home in the war-ravaged African country now called South Sudan.

He doesn’t remember much from his early childhood; “Being around friends, playing a lot of soccer, being a family. Everything was family-oriented back then.”

Not long after, the family moved to Australia and a new life in Brisbane. Things would get better but adjusting wasn’t easy.

“In primary school, the biggest thing was basically communicating,” Reath says. “Trying to make friends.

“Fortunately, we were in Brisbane and we had family over there. My uncles and my cousins were there. I spent a lot of time with my cousins and they were able to help with the adjustment to living here in Australia. So being around them was pretty big. Like making friends, just going to school and just communicating with teachers and people (was difficult).”

After two-and-a-half years in Brisbane, the family travelled west to Perth in search of better work opportunities for his parents. An older, more confident Duop was now better prepared to thrive.

“Growing up was good in Perth,” he says. “High school was good. I felt pretty adjusted now to Australia. The language barrier was probably the hardest part and spending maybe that amount of time now (in Brisbane) to get to high school, my English was fluent at that time, so communicating with people was much easier.

“That was probably my biggest challenge growing up when I was younger. When I was able to communicate, it got much easier for me.”

Helen Fisher was the Perth basketball coach who taught Reath how to play. Her fundamental instruction: it’s all about putting the ball in the hoop.

“A lot of credit goes to her because the fundamentals of everything, she put that into me at a very young age,” Reath says.

“I always wanted to work on my shooting. Dribbling. Finishing in the paint, lay-ups, and she did all that for me. She used to carry a broom to try to block my shots and stuff like that. I fell in love with that process of trying to get better. That’s what pulled me to basketball.”

Reath improved quickly and before too long, he was on the move again. This time to the United States, where he played for two years at a small community college in Baytown, Texas, 50km east of Houston. It wasn’t always easy at Lee College but it would be another pivotal step in his basketball journey.

“They challenged me a lot to grow up pretty much,” Reath says. “To be a man and to be a good basketball player. What it takes to be a good basketball player. Challenged me a lot and held me accountable.”

He spent two years at Division 1 school Louisiana State University and then went to Serbia for three seasons – the last of them with Belgrade-based powerhouse Crvena zvezda – before signing with the Illawarra Hawks last July.

After seven years on the road, it was time for Reath to come home. To reconnect with friends and family, to play with more freedom, and to add more to a game that many good judges believe will see him eventually get a shot at the NBA.

Reath hasn’t had it all his own way but is doing his best work at the right time of the season for the high-flying Hawks. He scored 15 points or more in seven of his past nine games, averaged eight rebounds through that stretch, and will be one of Illawarra’s most important pieces when it opens its best-of-three semi-final series against the Sydney Kings this Friday.

As Hawks coach, Brian Goorjian has continued the tutelage that Reath enjoyed with the Boomers.

“Everybody that knows ‘Goorj’ knows that he’s the type of person that’s all about a relationship,” Reath says. “He wants to have an off-court relationship with everybody individually and he cares about everybody individually. And he gives you a sense of comfort level when you’re around him.

“You can ask him any question that you want to know and he’ll give you the answer. And he’ll say, ‘Whatever you don’t understand, speak up’; he’s willing to give you the answers and he’s willing to listen to you as well.

“One of the best coaches ever to do it and to see that first-hand, you understand why he is who he is.”

Reath is 25 now and one of the most influential big men in Australian basketball, but will often take a moment to reflect on his opportunities.

“All the time,” he says. “Life’s too short at the end of the day, and you’ve just got to be very grateful for what you’ve got, because there’s somebody else out there has got it worse than you.

“I always feel like as long as you’re healthy, you’re very blessed and you should be very grateful for that.”

*****

The first thing that Reath’s father, Thomas, asks his son when he calls him is: “Are you healthy? Are you OK?”

Thomas is Duop’s lifelong role model.

“I looked up to my father all the time,” Reath says. “Just to be able to see how he was able to get up every morning after working throughout the whole night (at a casino) and be able to still take all the kids to school, pick them up, bring them back home and then go to work. Work through the whole night.

“Just to be able to see that and never complaining. Never saying a word about it. And just always happy about what he’s doing. To be able to see the hard work that he did.

“Leaving his family behind back in South Sudan. We were young, so as kids you don’t really have that deeper connection with people as like my father (did). All of his brothers and sisters, he left them behind to be able to give his kids a better opportunity here. Start a better life here.

“It probably was tough for him, but that’s the sacrifices that he made for us. Just seeing stuff like that is very motivating. He’s somebody that you want to be. A strong person like him. He’s a leader. So, somebody that I’d want to be one day. Definitely that’s somebody that I look up to. Just for everything in life.”

Reath left South Sudan 16 years ago but the country remains close to his heart. He hasn’t forgotten where he came from and considers it a big deal to be able to help blaze a trail for those who come next.

“There’s a lot of South Sudanese kids out there that actually have dreams to be able to play basketball professionally one day,” he says.

“And growing up, for them to see somebody that’s playing at that level, at a very high level, and to be able to know that they come from the same household they come from, it gives them a sense of direction to believe that they can do it, too.

“Even me growing up, there was not that many South Sudanese that played professionally. And sometimes you ask yourself, ‘Is it really going to happen? I don’t really see anybody that grew up how I grew up at that level’.

“So, for them to be able to see that, I think it motivates them in a way to go to school, chase their dreams. If they want to be a doctor. Or want to be a mechanic. Anything that they want in life. To be able to just go and chase it, chase their dreams.

“That’s pretty much the message that I would want to leave behind to the kids. To just go all-in on whatever you want to achieve in life. If it’s not hurting anybody, just go ahead and do it.”

Reath has packed a lot into the first quarter century of his life. Regardless of how far Illawarra advances in the NBL playoffs, he is looking forward to more good times.

There’s a title to be won with the Hawks. A dream to be realised in the NBA. And all being well, more success with the Boomers, who’ll compete at next year’s FIBA World Cup and the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

“It would be a dream come true, to be able to go back again,” he says. “The experience that I had the first time I know will be even better going back. And to be able to see some of the guys again and be around them again, it would be incredible.

“I’ve just got to do my part and become the best basketball player that I could be. And hopefully if the opportunity comes, I’ll be ready.”

Through many significant challenges in his life, Reath has always found a way to push forward. To show that there’s more than one way to reach the top.

“There’s so many obstacles in the way,” he says. “You’ve just got to be able to know how to stay resilient. Understand that, yes, there will be obstacles in the way, but for me to achieve what I want to achieve, you have to fall in love with what comes with it. The process that comes with it. If you do that, you’ll be all right.

“I’m very grateful for everything that happens in my life. Because, even starting from where I came from, all the way back, even at the refugee camp, you don’t imagine things like this happening in your life.

“To be able to play a game that you love and make a decent living from it … it’s not something that you think about. But I’m very grateful and I feel very blessed to be able to do what I do.”