Atem Kuol Atem

Atem was born in Bor, South Sudan. He and his family spent four years in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya before moving to Sydney, Australia, where he was introduced to basketball by his high school teacher. He started to take the sport seriously when he was offered a scholarship to Illawarra Sports High School in Wollongong, and from there he earned a scholarship to Northern Oklahoma College in the United States. Atem was on the 2012–13 roster at North Oklahoma College, but red-shirting challenged his commitment. He didn't want to return to North Oklahoma for the 2013–14 season, and instead embarked on a career in the Australian state leagues.

In 2014, Atem joined the Ipswich Force of the Queensland Basketball League (QBL). He only managed a handful of games in the QBL, as he spent the majority of the year with the Force's Southern Basketball League (SBL) affiliate team. He was subsequently named the MVP of the SBL team.

In August 2014, Atem joined the Adelaide 36ers of the National Basketball League (NBL) for a number of preseason matches ahead of the 2014–15 NBL season. He was also offered a place in the team's development program. He remained in South Australia for the 2015 Premier League season, as he joined the Eastern Mavericks. In October 2015, he joined the 36ers training squad for the 2015–16 NBL season.

In November 2015, Atem signed with the North-West Tasmania Thunder for the 2016 SEABL season. In 20 games for the Thunder, he averaged 2.5 points and 1.3 rebounds per game.

On 31 October 2016, Atem signed with the Goldfields Giants for the 2017 State Basketball League season.

In March 2017, Atem played for the South Sudanese national team at the FIBA AfroBasket 2017 qualifiers. In four games, he averaged 9.8 points and 9.3 rebounds per game.