The U.S. revoked visas from a top basketball player's country. How the NBA kept his dream alive.

When Khaman Maluach’s freshman season at Duke University ended in April, the biggest question about the 7-foot-2 big man’s ability to play in the NBA had nothing to do with his shooting, size or skill

When Khaman Maluach’s freshman season at Duke University ended in April, the biggest question about the 7-foot-2 big man’s ability to play in the NBA had nothing to do with his shooting, size or skill.

It had everything to do with his passport.

His enormous wingspan and potential made Maluach, who was born in South Sudan and raised in Uganda, the youngest player at last summer’s Paris Olympics, playing for the South Sudanese national team while sharing the court with U.S. stars such as Kevin Durant and Bam Adebayo. Months later, after an all-conference season at Duke, there appeared little keeping him with nimble feet and shot-blocking prowess from the NBA.

Yet on April 5, hours before the Blue Devils lost in the national semifinals of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and nearly three months before the NBA draft, that future appeared in flux. All visas held by South Sudanese passport holders were being revoked, the State Department announced.

Questions immediately arose about whether Maluach would be eligible to be selected. But thanks to a little-known division of the NBA few have heard of, he walked across the Barclays Center stage in Brooklyn, New York, on Wednesday night, as the 10th overall pick. He will begin his NBA career in Phoenix.