REGENSBURG (David Hein’s Eye on the Future) - It's not every day that the basketball family gets new members so Eye on the Future wanted to take this opportunity to welcome South Sudan and East Timor to the FIBA family.

This column is designed to look at the prospects of the future so why not take a look at the future perspectives of these two new basketball nations.

South Sudan would appear to have the brighter long-term perspectives of being a strong side. The main reason for that is because of the decided physical, athletic and size advantages. The new country, which has only existed since 9 July 2011, has already produced NBA level talent. Manute Bol and Luol Deng were both from towns located in present day South Sudan.

A number of youngsters from South Sudan have already moved to the United States to attend high school and then likely college in the States, which will drastically improve the level of the game in the country.

In addition, many previous Sudanese players will likely have the choice of playing for their true home nation of South Sudan - though Deng of course would not apply as he plays already for Great Britain.

An un-official South Sudan national team played their first game just four days after their independence on 13 July 2011 against Ugandan club champions Power, with the South Sudanese losing 86-84. Deng was actually on hand in Juba to witness this contest.

It's unclear at the moment where South Sudan will play in FIBA Africa's qualification system. It would seem that they would be slotted into Zone 5 which includes neighbors Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda as well near-by Eritrea and Rwanda. But Zone 5 already has 10 teams.

The other option could be Zone 4 which has eight nations, including South Sudan's direct neighbors Central African Republic and DR Congo and nearby Chad.

East Timor's population of 1.2 million on the half island - which borders with Indonesian West Timor - pales in comparison to the more than 8 million residents in South Sudan.

East Timor was colonised by Portugal in the 16th century and known as Portuguese Timor until Portugal's decolonisation and the country's independence in 1975. The independence was formally granted in 2002.

From a basketball standpoint, East Timor is not necessarily located in a basketball hotbed. Indonesia is the biggest Asian country in the region and they failed to qualify for the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship after having played at the previous four continental events from 2005 to 2011. Indonesia's best finish in that stretch was 12th place.

Indonesia goes through the Southeast Asia basketball region to qualify for the Asian championships. It would seem that East Timor would be fitted into that organisation as well.

East Timor actually played basketball at the 2006 Lusophony Games, a multi-sports event for Portuguese-speaking nations including Portugal, Macau, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, India, Sri Lanka, Guinea-Bissau and Sao Tome and Principe.

East Timor lost all five games by an average score of 166-39. They allowed at least 142 to every team and besides scoring 69 points against Portugal, East Timor did not top 38 points in their other four games. That may have been the reason East Timor did not compete in basketball at the 2009 Lusophony Games.

As far as perspectives down the road, East Timor obviously do not have a large local or domestic talent pool - if nothing also because of the low number of people. But it wouldn’t be a surprise if East Timorese basketball officials inquire in neighboring Australia - about 610 kilometers away - if there aren't any people there with an East Timor background. The same could be done in Indonesia and Portugal.

Regardless of how successful they are in the future, it’s very exciting to welcome two new members to the FIBA family.

David Hein

FIBA

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