What is Khaman Maluach's ethnicity? Know more about Duke freshman's family

Khaman Maluach has enthralled college basketball fans with his massive size and immense talents in his freshman season at Duke. Standing 7-foot-2, Maluach was the No. 3 overall prospect and top overall center prospect in the Class of 2024, per 247Sports, featuring alongside top recruit Cooper Flagg in one of the Blue Devils' strongest signing classes in program history this season.

Maluach's success at Durham has sparked interest in his background. Here's a detailed summary of the talented center's humble origins, featuring details on his ethnicity, family and more.

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What is Khaman Maluach's ethnicity?

Khaman Maluach was born on September 14, 2006 in Rumbek, South Sudan, which means he's of South Sudanese ethnicity.

Per the BBC, the raging civil war in South Sudan forced him to flee the country with his mother and siblings, and he was raised in Kawempe, a town which is on the outskirts of the capital of Uganda, Kampala.

While his mother raised him along with his siblings in Kawempe, his father, Madit Maluach, chose to stay back in South Sudan to work.

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How was Khaman Maluach discovered?

Initially, Maluach showed no interest in basketball. Instead, he hoped to pursue a career in soccer, growing up as the tallest player on the pitch by some distance. However, when walking home one afternoon, he was spotted by Akech Wuoi Garang, the high school coach of Bethel Covenant College.

Garang stopped his bike as soon as he saw Maluach, with the teenager recalling how he put his faith in him since he was a South Sudanese coach.

Per SLAMOnline, "I trusted Akech because he was a South Sudanese coach,” Maluach explains. “He gave me a scholarship to go study at school. By then, school tuition was hard, so I took the scholarship and it motivated me. That’s how I got into the game."

In 2021, Maluach received an invite from NBA Academy Africa despite having just played basketball for just a year.

Before making the long trip to Saly, Senegal for the tryout, Maluach learned some tricks of the trade by watching videos of NBA All-Stars Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo, with the teenager looking up to the latter as his role model.

Per BBC, Maluach said, "I used to see Giannis' jab step, and then with Joel I learned the shimmy. If they can make it there, I can make it there too."

Under the guidance of Luol Deng, Khaman Maluach quickly became one of the top prospects in the academy, being named the MVP of the NBA's Basketball Without Borders African camp. He was listed as a five-star prospect in the Class of 2024, ultimately committing to the Blue Devils on March 6.