Deng swaps Brixton for the NBA's ultimate stage

"I don't know if I'd be the next Wayne Rooney, but I think I'd be in the Premier League. It's just my competitive nature. Sometimes I wish I was short, then other times, when I think about how exciting it's going to be to play in the NBA, I think 'naw'."

Deng has a unique perspective which he believes will keep his elongated feet firmly attached to the ground. He had to confront the realities of war at a very early age when his family was forced to flee from the Sudan into exile, first as refugees in Egypt before his parents and their nine offspring were granted political asylum in London.

"We stayed in Wimbledon at first," he recalls. "I remember it seemed so modern with all the technology. I was coming from a Third World country and although, of course, the language was different, what struck me most was that it seemed really clean. I remember looking at the cars and the trains in the Underground. It all seemed so amazing." Football remained his passion and Highbury the home of his heroes. However his elder brothers had found a welcome at Brixton Recreation Centre, where a coach named Jimmy Rodgers has spent years turning rough diamonds into basketball gems. Little Luol went along to watch. Then he was persuaded to join in. And although practice under his would-be mentor was never easy, it allowed Deng's abilities to fully flourish.

"In basketball, you need one coach who will go after you and that's what he did for me and everyone else who he has coached," he explains.

"He pushes you to that next level and even though I was pretty good, I always got called out by Jimmy. Even for the little things, like having my shoelaces untied. Or if I was late. Or came fifth in the sprint rather than in the top three.

"I was playing against men at the age of 12 but if I made mistakes, he would scream at me. At the time I hated it. There were days when I went 'man, I don't want to deal with Jimmy'. But it made me better."

SO much so that he was offered a place at a high school in New Jersey, where he used to practice before breakfast every day. From there he went on to impress in a year's stint at Duke University in North Carolina before the NBA came calling.

Now, the ultimate stage beckons. As a newcomer on a Bulls team which has lost its lustre since Jordan departed, there will undoubtedly be growing pains as he adjusts to the 82-game punishing schedule and arduous trips from coast to coast. Deng shrugs his shoulders though. Why worry? It's just another in a long line of challenges he has faced head on.

"In my first year at high school in the US, they ranked me 195," he states. "The next year I became 75. And then at the beginning of my final year, I was No2.

"It told me that if I set a target, I could move towards the place I wanted to get to. I never felt comfortable. Now I'm in the NBA.

But I was only the seventh choice in this year's Draft so I'm not considered the best rookie. So there's a goal for me there, to be the No1."