Fate reunites duo in Portland

Khryapa and Monia believe they’re both Blazers for a reason

By Carl Schreck

The Portland Tribune, Sep 16, 2005, Updated Oct 30, 2009

MOSCOW, Russia Ñ Viktor Khryapa never intended to name his dog after one of his closest friends. But after an offhand joke to a journalist, one thing led to another.

Khryapa, the Trail Blazers’ rangy young Russian forward, originally named the beagle Terry. He had bought it in Moscow and brought it with him to Portland. It was only after Khryapa’s interview with a leading Russian sports daily in February that the dog was rechristened in honor of another young Russian forward set to join the Blazers next season: Sergei Monia.

“The journalist asked me about the dog, and I decided to play a joke on Sergei,” Khryapa says. “I told him the dog was named Monia, as a diminutive of Monika. I looked in the Internet the next day, and everyone was writing about how I named the dog after Sergei. So I called Sergei and asked if he was OK with it. He said it was fine, and the name stuck.”

There’s a Russian saying that says every joke contains more truth than humor, and it’s tempting to speculate on a possible subconscious co-dependency behind Khryapa’s tomfoolery.

Last season, after all, was the first one in five years that Khryapa and Monia did not suit up for the same team. And both players invoke the same word when discussing their communal journey from the shores of the Volga River to the banks of the Willamette: sudba.

Few beliefs are as entrenched in the enigmatic Russian soul as the belief in sudba, a word meaning both “fate” and “destiny” that is used to explain events ranging from tragic to joyous.

Little wonder, then, that when the Blazers came out of the 2004 draft with Khryapa and Monia, the 22nd and 23rd picks chalked it up to inevitability.

“I didn’t expect it,” Khryapa says. “There are 30 teams in the NBA, and I figured the chance was small. I guess it is our destiny to play together.”

Dynamic duo

Khryapa, 6-9, and Monia, 6-8, met about seven years ago at a basketball school in the industrial city of Saratov, Monia’s hometown and a sort of Detroit on the Volga famous for its car factories. Khryapa considers his older brother, Nikolai, his best friend and a father figure, and when Nikolai signed a contract to play for the Saratov club Avtodor, Viktor decided to move with him from Kiev.

“At first, Viktor and I were put in different sections,” Monia says. “But after a while they put us together, and we immediately became close friends.”

Two years later, Monia and Khryapa were suiting up for the Avtodor senior team in the Russian first division, and it gradually became evident that the duo could be the next Russians to follow Utah Jazz star Andrei Kirilenko to the NBA.

Khryapa was selected for the Russian national team for the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis and drew comparisons to Kirilenko.

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