Canberra product Chima Moneke helps Nigeria bring down Team USA in Olympic Games warm-up

But that is exactly what transpired in Las Vegas on Sunday morning [AEDT] as Moneke's Nigeria pulled off a stunning 90-87 win described as one of the great upsets in basketball history in a pre-Olympic Games exhibition.

Nigerian-born, Canberra-raised Moneke plies his trade in France. Now he is on a collision course with the Boomers with the two nations to meet at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Nigeria will head to Tokyo buoyed by a win over a starting line-up featuring NBA stars Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal, Jayson Tatum and Bam Adebayo.

It is the United States men's basketball team's first defeat to an African nation, coming nine years after Nigeria lost by 83 points to Team USA at the 2012 Olympics.

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"In a way, I'm kind of glad it happened," Team USA coach Gregg Popovich said.

"That means nothing if we don't learn from it. It could be the most important thing in this tournament for us."

Moneke has emerged as the Boomer that never was. He had spent the majority of his life in Australia after moving down under at the age of two but still didn't qualify as a local player in the NBL, instead opting to play in France.

"I definitely want to play in the Olympics, but I think at this point it would just make sense for me to play for Nigeria, if I ever do play," Moneke told The Canberra Times in 2019.

"Australia has a lot of talent, they'll be set with their personnel and who they're going to use. Playing for Nigeria might make more sense for me now.

"I would have get my citizenship if I am ever going to play as a local [in the NBL], obviously. At this point I'm just going to focus on playing over here [in Europe]."

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