![Chima Moneke, left, will play his debut season for the Sacramento Kings. Picture Getty Images Chima Moneke, left, will play his debut season for the Sacramento Kings. Picture Getty Images](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/j2iwCiKfwhVWJky39Vsdpt/bb36bd72-774c-4001-9d70-c9dec073a545.jpg/r0_643_4666_3266_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The NBA world is different to the one the rest of us live in. Million-dollar deals, private jets and diamond-encrusted name tags.
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If Chima Moneke gets his way, he won't need to wear the bling bearing his name for people to know who he is and how good he can be.
"The world doesn't really know me yet. That's fine," Moneke said.
"I know I belong in the league. Every summer I've played with NBA guys. When I get in the game, it's just basketball."
The Nigerian-born, Canberra-raised rookie is finally where he thought he always would be: in the NBA ready to prove the doubters wrong.
Moneke has taken the long and hard road to the world's best league. He was overlooked in the draft four years ago despite an impressive college career and wound up back in Australia to play in the NBL.
A passport drama meant he was banished from the NBL, and instead he landed in Europe.
But even on the other side of the world, he never took his eyes off his NBA goal and his Olympic Games campaign for Nigeria opened the door he'd been banging on for years.
That's where he first came across Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown. And when Brown took over as Kings coach in May, Moneke was one of the first players he called.
"It's been awesome," Moneke said. "He believed in me, he's vouching me by me being here so I've got to prove him right.
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"He's taken care of me, been very real and very transparent so it's been fun."
The son of Nigerian diplomats went to Farrer Primary and Lake Ginninderra College before moving to the United States to attend University of California at Davis to further his game.
The youngest of six boys has lived in five countries, but calls Canberra home after moving to the capital when he was two and sharing the court with Dante Exum at Lake Ginninderra.
But the path has never been easy. He estimates he emailed about 300 US colleges seeking an opportunity before landing at a community college in Nebraska.
Now the versatile, goggle-wearing forward wants to show the world what he can do.
"For me, experiencing all of this for the first time is exciting," Moneke said.
"I knew I belonged [in the NBA] four years ago.
"There's pressure with this job. You can get cut, you can get traded at any time. But at the end of the day it's basketball and I'm grateful to be here.
"That's my mindset and I look forward to proving I belong here. If I'm myself, I know it's enough.
"I'm an energiser, I'm tough. I do the dirty things, I feel like I'm the best cutter in the world ... if you know how to impact the game without the ball you're a good player and I feel like I can sacrifice and be effective.
"I just think I'm a basketball player and I see the NBA has been changing in my favour with guys who are versatile and smaller ... it's good for me."
Moneke was the European Basketball Champions League most valuable player in 2020-21, helping put him in the frame to get his shot at the Kings.
But he had to start in the French second division and work his way up after the NBL debacle, which also ultimately led to him choosing to play international basketball for Nigeria instead of Australia.
"I never stopped believing in myself," Moneke wrote on the champions league website.
"Ask the people I'm close to, there are so many messages I sent, letting them know it's gonna happen - 'I'll play in the NBA before I'm 27. Screenshot this'.
"Still, the whole thing came out of nowhere.
"Man, my whole career. Overlooked. Doubted. Underrated. And now that I'm here, the plan isn't changing. I'm going back to being a nobody in the NBA. That's how it's gonna be."
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