Sergei Alexandrovich Monja

Sergei Monja
Player information
Full name	Sergei Alexandrovich Monja
birthday	April 15, 1983
place of birth	Saratov, Soviet Union
size	202 cm
position	Shooting Guard / Small Forward
NBA draft	2004 , 23rd pick Portland Trail Blazers
Club information
society	BK Khimki
league	PBL / VTB
Clubs as active
0000–2002 Awtodor Saratow 2002–2005 PBK CSKA Moscow 2005–2006 Portland Trail Blazers 2006 Sacramento Kings 2006–2010 MBK Dynamo Moscow Since 2010 BK Chimki 000 0 00
National team
Since 2001 00	Russia

Sergei Alexandrowitsch Monja medal table
Basketball (men)
Russia
Olympic games
bronze	2012 London
European Championship
gold	2007 Spain
bronze	2011 Lithuania

Sergei Alexandrowitsch Monja ( Russian Сергей Александрович Моня ; born April 15, 1983 in Saratov , RSFSR ) is a Russian basketball player . Monja's career has taken a similar course to that of his more well-known compatriot Wiktor Chrjapa . After he was selected in 2004 directly after Chrjapa in the NBA Draft , Monja played briefly in the 2005/06 season in the highest endowed professional league NBA with the Portland Trail Blazers and another club. However, he could not prevail and then returned to Russia, where he has been playing for the Moscow suburb club BK Chimki since 2010. With the Russian national team, Monja won the 2007 European basketball championship and a bronze medal at the 2011 European Championships .

Club career

Monja already played with Chrjapa at Awtodor Saratov when she was a junior and reached fourth place with the Russian junior selection at the U20 European Championships in 2002. Then both moved to the dominant Russian basketball club PBK ZSKA in Moscow . This club won the Russian championship in 2003 & 2004 after another club had won the title for the first time in the history of the Russian championship with Ural Great Perm in the previous two years . In the highest European club competition ULEB Euroleague they reached the Final Four tournament twice , after a fourth place in 2003 they came third in 2004. In the 2004 NBA draft , three Russians were selected by NBA clubs in the first round in positions 21 to 23 with Pawel Podkolzin , Wiktor Chrjapa and Monja. The Portland Trail Blazers had the rights to Monja through the draft pick and also acquired the rights to Chrjapa through a player swap. While the one year older Chrjapa was taken directly into the squad of the club, Monja played another season at CSKA, in which they won the Russian championship again and came fourth in the ULEB Euroleague 2004/05 . Then Monja moved to the NBA, where he was passed on to the Sacramento Kings after 23 games, where he made three more games. Chrjapa ended up with the Chicago Bulls after the end of the season after a player swap , before finally returning to Russia in 2008. This ended the “Russian experiment” with the Trail Blazers, who had previously had good experiences with the former Soviet national player Arvydas Sabonis .

Monja played from 2006 at Dynamo, the local rival of CSKA, initially again under the Serbian coach Dušan Ivković , who previously worked at CSKA from 2002 to 2005. In the ULEB Euroleague 2006/07 they reached the quarter-final play-offs , in which they were eliminated against the eventual title winner Panathinaikos Athens , and finished fourth in the Russian championship. In the following season Ivković 'compatriot Svetislav Pešić took over the coaching office and in the ULEB Cup 2007/08 they lost the semifinals against Pešić' former club Akasvasyu Girona , but could still take third place in the second most important European club competition by winning the "small final" as in the Russian championship. The US national coach David Blatt took over Dynamo as coach in the 2008/09 season, in which the Eurocup 2008/09 , the new name of the ULEB Cup, was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Elite Eight final tournament. In the Russian championship, however, you could improve by one place and won a bronze medal. For the 2009/10 season Dynamo played without legionnaires and reached a fourth place under coach Sergei Basarewitsch , whereby they had no chance in the Eurocup 2009/10 and were eliminated in the preliminary round after six defeats in six games.

In 2010, after a scandal over manipulation that also affected games by Dynamo, a new top division was introduced in Russia with the Professionalnaja Basketbolnaja Liga . Monja moved to the Russian runner-up in the Moscow suburb of Chimki and was able to qualify with this for the ULEB Euroleague 2010/11 , in which, however, they were just eliminated in the preliminary round. After another runner-up with BK Chimki and winning the VTB United League after a narrow final victory over CSKA 2011, this time they surprisingly dropped out in the qualification for the ULEB Euroleague 2011/12 and won the ULEB Eurocup 2011/12 .

National team

Monja was represented for the first time at the 2003 European Basketball Championships in a final squad of the men's national team. At this and the following EM 2005 they finished eighth and thus missed the qualification for the Olympic Games 2004 as well as for the 2006 World Cup . At the EM 2007 , under the new national coach David Blatt, they advanced unbeaten to the finals except for a quite clear 69:81 intermediate round defeat against hosts Spain . Here you could defeat the favored host with one point and after 13 EM titles for the national basketball team of the USSR you could win a European championship for Russia for the first time. At the following Olympic Games in 2008 they disappointed with only one preliminary round victory and an early elimination. At the 2009 European Championships they also started relatively weakly and as defending champion could only just barely qualify with a preliminary round win for the intermediate round, in which they won all three games. In the quarterfinals, however, they lost the eventual finalists Serbia and ended up seventh. At the 2010 World Cup , they presented themselves strongly in the preliminary round and only lost one game against hosts Turkey . In the quarter-finals, however, they met the eventual title winner United States and finally came in seventh. At the EM 2011 all games were won, including a new edition of the quarter-finals against Serbia, up to the semi-finals, which they lost to France . In the game for third place you could secure the bronze medal against the surprise team of the Macedonia tournament . At the 2012 Olympic Games in London they lost the semi-finals again to France and won the bronze medal against Argentina .

Achievements and Awards

society

• Russian champion (7): 2003-2005
• Russian Cup Winner: 2005
• VTB United League winner: 2011
• ULEB Eurocup winner: 2012, 2015
• MVP of the All-Star Game in the PBL 2011

National team

• Winner European Championship 2007
• Bronze European Championship 2011
• Bronze Olympic Games 2012

Web links

• Monya, SERGEY - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB (English)
• archive.fiba.com: Players - Sergey MONYA (RUS) - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments (English)
• NBA.com: Sergei Monia Info Page - Profile in the NBA player archive (English)
• Sergey Monya in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Carl Schreck: Fate reunites duo in Portland. PortlandTribune.com, September 16, 2005, accessed October 29, 2011 . 
2. ↑ Russian basketball shaken with juicy scandal. (No longer available online.) RT .com, May 22, 2010, archived from the original on January 13, 2012 ; accessed on October 29, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Russian basketball scandal tape fake. (No longer available online.) RT .com, June 2, 2010, archived from the original on March 21, 2011 ; accessed on October 29, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.