When Kaman Mallach's freshman season at Duke ended in April, the biggest issue with the 7-foot-2 big man playing in the NBA had nothing to do with his shooting, size or skill.
It had something to do with his passport.
His enormous wingspan and potential came from South Sudan, growing up in Uganda, the youngest player at the Parisio Games last summer, playing for the South Sudan national team, while sharing courts with stars such as Kevin Durant and Bamu Adebayo. A few months later, after all conference seasons at Duke, it was barely visible to leave him with agile feet and shot blocking skills from the NBA.
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But that future appeared on Flax on April 5th, when the Blue Devils lost in the national semi-finals of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, nearly three months before the NBA Draft. The State Department has announced that all visas held by South Sudan passport holders have been revoked.
Questions quickly arose as to whether Maluach was eligible for selection. But thanks to the lesser known division of the NBA, he walked the Barclays Center Stage in Brooklyn, New York for his 10th overall pick on Wednesday night. He begins his NBA career in Phoenix.
“People always ask me: 'What do you do in the NBA? What do international basketball operations do?” Troy Justice, senior vice president of the NBA and head of international basketball, said in an interview. “And we make our dreams come true. We give people the opportunity to not do that.”

For over 30 years, the NBA has exported its missions to the world. In 1992, the NBA players “Dream Team” dominated the Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, becoming the league's star power global billboard, with only 21 international players in the league. By last fall, a record 125-year-old 125 had made up nearly a third of the league. The league “hopes it will continue to grow and expand,” Justice said.
Demographic changes have reconstructed the league. 48 of the first 49 most valuable player award winners in NBA history were welcomed from the United States, while 10 of the last seven MVP awards were sent to foreign-born stars, including the last seven. As the Thunder's NBA Championship Parade passed through the city of Oklahoma City on Tuesday, the title trophy was held by athletes from seven countries, including Canadian-born MVP Shaygile Alexander.
As the NBA brought basketball to the world, logistics, which often brings players from around the world to the NBA, fell into the league arm of the international basketball business. Thirty-eight staff operate in offices in 14 countries, but have expertise in immigration law and visa issues, as well as government relationships around the world, which has allowed the league to increase their global ambitions.
“It's a time when all domestic leagues, including the NBA and WNBA, are expanding their international footprint, growing global populations, and the immigration process is becoming more complicated,” says Travis Murphy, an immigration consultant for the NBA and former diplomats. “And that's really like this complete storm of global growth in the league that is trying to broaden its footprint and expand to more countries. At the same time, it's more difficult than ever to travel the world. And it's not just an international passport.
By creating basketball “schools” for young players and establishing basketball without cross-border camps or academies overseas for elite-level teenagers, the NBA has actually sought to build a funnel to discover and discover the next generation of players. Justice said the NBA's international reach extends to 30 million coaches, umpires and young players every year.
Among them is Mallach.
Born in Rambek, South Sudan, Mallach fled the country at a young age in Uganda with his mother and several siblings. I grew up playing soccer there. He didn't start playing basketball until 2019 at the age of 12 after being discovered by a scout who worked in the NBA's African business. The scouts, called Brendan McKillop, the NBA's associate vice president and head of elite basketball, shares that they may have found a potential client.
By 2014, Mallach had won a spot at the NBA-run Senegal-based academy, whose feeder program ultimately placed him on the NBA's African basketball league roster and played for teams based in South Sudan, Senegal and Uganda. As he improved, the NBA continued to open more doors at the showcase over the All-Star weekend last year, from participating in basketball-free basketball where he acquired the most valuable players, to the NBA scouts at the league's annual minor league showcase.
At each stop, the NBA's international operations team worked to make travel from one country to the next, just like all international players. The work followed the State Department's lawsuit against South Sudan as Mallach stayed in the US to train prior to the draft.
“We've been on this journey… I'm going to continue this journey with Kaman from the age of 14 and with him throughout the rest of his career. I'll continue this journey by posting his career,” Justice said. “These are lifelong commitments we make to all international players.”

When Mallach arrived in the United States last summer, after playing at the Olympics, he held the F-1 visa, commonly used for international student athletes in the US. When that visa was no longer valid three months later, Maluach's I-20 kept him legally in his position. He has not been able to leave the country since President Donald Trump took office in January due to fluctuating US policies. Trump reportedly signed a declaration this month banning citizens from 12 countries from entering the United States, indicating that the State Department was later considering expanding the travel ban. South Sudan was one of the countries that could be affected.
When Mallach's only season at Duke ended, the NBA began paperwork for him to receive his B-1/B-2 business tourist visa, which is pending. Mallach was drafted by a US-based team on Wednesday, so the NBA will begin the process of obtaining a P-1 visa. This is a typical professional athlete visa for the US.
While Mallach was never considered legally enrolment into the United States and would be at risk of deportation despite the State Department's revoking his South Sudan visa, the Trump administration's policy on South Sudan nevertheless added a layer of complexity to his professional future. If he is drafted by one of the 29 US-based NBA teams, he will still travel internationally to Canada, face raptors and head elsewhere for pre-season and regular season games. The league begins by filing a petition through the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which continues the length of his first contract. However, every time he wanted to return to the US, he had to first interview at the US embassy.
The NBA once processed around 400 immigration and visa cases a year, while Justice said it now handles well over 2,000. Ensuring the movement of players around the world requires close ties with multiple governments beginning in the US.
I live in the United States, holding my passport from countries where my visa may be revoked or facing a travel ban. But “it's not a nightmare for athletes, because athletes who participate in major sports competitions have a comprehensive exemption,” said Jeff Joseph, president of the American Association of Immigration Barriers. The NBA helped lobby the US government to create a “national interest” exemption in the summer of 2020, helping players return from overseas to participate in the season reopening amid the pandemic, Murphy said.
The NBA manages its relationships with the US government through multiple administrations by acting as a diplomatic partner. It created the “Hoops for Troops” program, which involves former NBA and WNBA players in a sports envoy program sponsored by the Department of State.
Murphy said organizing travel has become more complicated. “It's not necessarily for one administration, it just reflects the global immigration situation,” he said.
Asked how the State Department works with professional sports leagues to approve visas for foreign-born players, an agency spokesman said, “All US visa applicants have been asked to undergo extensive security screening to ensure that the individual, their citizens, or their national interests pose a threat to the United States will not obtain a visa.
The NBA officially entered the offseason on Monday, but the work of international operations teams to handle visas and immigration and grow grassroots bases is not over. In addition to this week's NBA Draft, the league is holding a “Rising Star” tournament this week featuring youth players from 11 countries. Next month, the annual Summer League will be held in Las Vegas. There is also a volunteer coaching program run by the African Basketball League, as well as several other commitments that require work in the International Operations Group.
“This whole process is because it's very important where individuals come from and what passport they hold,” Murphy said. “And it may be Nigerian athletes who are trying to enter Singapore, and those requirements may differ from Americans and different nationalities.
“So we manage it, we navigate it, we make sure we have the right information and build relationships with the embassies, consulates, foreign governments, and our own US government so that we can get things done when the time comes.”
On Tuesday the eve of Mallach being drafted, justice and others within the NBA's international operations staff took Mallach and several of his brothers to dinner.
For McKillop, who first met Mallach as a 14-year-old soccer player, draft nights are not only a celebration of the selected player, but they are “the pinnacle of the long-standing work of NBA academy staff around the world, spending almost every day together.”
“I don't think Kaman would say this, but he didn't have an easy life to go from South Sudan to Uganda and travel thousands of miles from his family at the age of 14,” McKillop added. “And he is looking to represent him as he has reached this point where schools line up to throw hundreds of thousands of dollars at him, especially in today's college basketball scene.
“And that's not a concern about Kahaman at all. He is a humble young man who has come through this program. I'm excited that he has this opportunity before him.”
An opportunity made possible behind the scenes by the NBA.