It was two in the morning.  Likely the last people even near the gym, I came back from playing three on three and couldn’t sleep.  I was the only one not on a collegiate team and as such was utterly embarrassed.  Yet here I was, riding an adrenaline high, wanting to write something different.  No disrespect to LeBron James, Dwayne Wade or anyone else but I’d rather write about fun, fringe trivia.  So when I texted my roommate and asked, “Would you read a profile on Cleveland Cavaliers legend, Chukwudiebere Maduabum?” his one word response of, “who” was just about all the response I needed.

In the fourteen years I’ve followed the NBA, there exists remarkable stories hidden behind seemingly unremarkable names.  Luke Ridnour’s week long trade extravaganza, Tanguy Ngombo drafted at age 26, Jonathan Nicola playing high school basketball at age 30, and Alex Owumi surviving the Libyan Civil War.  Stumbling upon Chukwudiebere Maduabum provided another.  Exchanged five different times yet never touching the NBA Hardwood, Maduabum is the draft asset that never was.  To write Maduabum off as simple trade fodder, however, is to discount a career spanning thirteen teams, eight countries and four continents.  Maduabum’s journey tells one of the NBA’s most interesting stories.

This story starts in Lagos, Nigeria at Masai Ujiri’s “Giants of Africa” big man camp.  A young athlete, known by the mantle of “Chu Chu” is just learning basketball.  Maduabum showed wild amounts of raw athletic potential.  At 6’10, Maduabum showed a dynamic and versatile skill set for a big man.  The earliest film footage I could find showed precision backdoor cut passes from the key, immediate transition back on defense and then subsequently swatting shots.  Maduabum’s potential and hustle didn’t go unnoticed, and by age 17 the big man played a major role with a Nigerian “League-2” team, the Dodan Warriors.  Putting up 10 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots a game, Maduabum flashed intriguing potential.

It wouldn’t be a year before Maduabum was playing in Nigeria’s League 1.  On a team that was traditionally staffed with grown adults, Maduabum injected youth.  The firebrand performed well enough to catch the attention of then Bakersfield Jam General Manager Bubba Burrage.  A former scout for the Phoenix Suns, Burrage saw the NBA D-League as a premier place to showcase Maduabum’s talent.  Phoenix and Bakersfield recently signed an affiliation contract, and this was Burrage’s chance to flex his international scouting muscles, giving Phoenix the insider look on a potential second round draft and stash.  This gamble would not pay off.

“I’ve never heard of him, I’ve got nothing for you.”  Jeff Van Gundy reacted to the 56th pick of 2011 NBA draft with mild disdain.  Mark from ShamSports, an international basketball guru (formerly, he rarely updates the website) described the selection with a quaint, “…And yet here we are now. This D-League garbage time player is an NBA draft pick.”  Needless to say Maduabum’s NBA stint wasn’t particularly successful.  Unable to average more than 1.0 in any given category, Maduabum ended up drawing unfavourable looks from ESPN analysts.  Questions regarding the pick swirled, was this just another training camp body, did a Laker’s scout find something literally no one else saw?  Regardless of the pick itself, an almost immediate backlash emerged.  ESPN College and Euroball expert Fran Fraschilla took to twitter ranting that he, “Didn't chime in draft night but disrespectful that good college players do 15 workouts for teams get passed up for guy averaging .7 in NDBL.”  The only real way to summarize the reaction would be that the ESPN analyst desk during the draft literally asked “Who are these guys”.

Maduabum, however, had allies in the NBA.  Though drafted by the Lakers, Maduabum would be traded in a draft night exchange to the Denver Nuggets in a trade orchestrated by General Manager Masai Ujiri.  A Nigerian native himself, Ujiri stated that “…He shows promise, he’s very athletic. He blocks shots. He plays raw, but you can see where he loves the game, spends hours on the court and tries to get better. We’ll take a chance and see how he develops.”  Not a year later, ESPN NBA analyst David Thorpe said that Maduabum “might be the smartest player I’ve ever coached in my life.”  Unfortunately Maduabum, a member of the 2011 draft class, wouldn’t make his NBA debut until summer league of 2012 thanks in part to the United States Government.

The P class Visa and its equivalents, held by any foreign national playing a sport in a foreign country is notoriously difficult to obtain.  The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) defined the requirements for obtaining a P1 visa as one who has “a high level of achievement in a field evidenced by a degree of skill and recognition substantially above that ordinarily encountered, to the extent that such achievement is renowned, leading, or well-known in more than one country.”  Despite Maduabum’s international reputation as the globe’s premier Nigerian combo big man, USCIS likely resided under a rock.  The Nigerian second league Kano Pillars produced such stars as Ibrahim Yusuf, Abubakar Usman and Azuoma Dike, yet Maduabum’s legacy with this incredible program failed to garner the USCIS’s attention.  Following a Feb 2011 trade sending Carmelo Anthony from the Denver Nuggets to The New York Knicks, Denver longer have any semblance of a “renowned, leading or well-known achievement” to their name, causing failure in sponsoring Maduabum’s P1 visa.

Maduabum would end up playing in the 2012 Summer League, averaging a staggering, renowned, leading and premier 2.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1 block per game.  His hustle and grit was akin to Matthew Dellavedova.  His on court presence dwarfed that of Draymond Green playing switch defence and absolutely eliminating garbage time units (actually he did play well, just was buried in the bench behind then rookie prospects such as Kenneth Faried).  Failing to make the actual roster, Maduabum would re-join the NBA D-League Bakersfield Jam though would subsequently get waived one game into the season due to injury.  Maduabum would have won 6 consecutive MVP awards in the NBA, but since this would be the last time Maduabum stepped foot on an NBA court, we’ll never have evidence that could prove otherwise.

Maduabum’s personal career continued on.  He’d serve as an above average role player for the Estonian and Qatari leagues, and eventually would even become an All-Star in the Mongolian League, which I definitely knew existed before writing this article.  While Maduabum wouldn’t ever lace up for an NBA squad, his NBA career was far from over.  Within the NBA, an aspect known as “touch” is prevalent in salary-dumping trades.  In all trades, each team needs to send out and take back at least one asset.  For salary-dumps these tend to include; European Draft Rights, a top 55 protected second round draft pick or somewhere between 75,000 and 5.3 million USD.  Cleveland’s salary dump of Richard Jefferson and Kay Felder to the Atlanta Hawks is one such example, with Atlanta sending a 28 year old prospect with a low chance of ever coming to the NBA and a wildly unpolished 22 year old in exchange for second round draft picks and the unwanted salary.  For Maduabum, his rights would serve as touch several more times.

After his departure from Bakersfield, Maduabum would bounce between European and Asian leagues for three years without an afterthought from the NBA.  Playing time in Estonia, Qatar, Mongolia, Iceland, and Finland, the globe trotter would resurface in 2015 where the Nuggets would trade Maduabum in a package star studded with JaVale McGee, Cenk Akyol and second round picks to a combination of the Rockets, 76ers and Phoenix.  This would start Maduabum’s first stint in Philly, putting him in the halls of 76er legends such as Ricky Sanchez and Mathais Lessort.  Exactly a year later, Maduabum would call Houston home, if only for four days with his rights shipped out in a three team trade sending Donatas Montiejunas to the Detroit Pistons.

Unfortunately, Montiejunas would fail his Detroit physical, and the trade would be nullified starting a crisis of Montiejunas’ career that would last several years.  The biggest loser, however, would be Maduabum, who spent countless hour’s house hunting on Zillow, only to return to Philly, all using Mongolian internet.  Which brings us to July 15th, 2016.  A day enshrined in Cavaliers legend, Cleveland sent Cash Considerations and Sasha Khan to Philadelphia, in exchange for one Mr. Chu Chu Maduabum.  Unfortunately for Cleveland, Maduabum committed to a contact with the Japanese Second Division Kagoshima Rebnise (Second in the Japanese League, but first in our hearts).  At this point it’s unlikely Maduabum will ever join the Cleveland Cavaliers, though I’ll advocate day in and day out that his number should be retired… whatever number that is.

For all the nonsense I’ve spat, I respect Maduabum.  The global journeyman’s career is far from over, at 28 likely Maduabum can continue playing for years to come.  Even if he’s never invited to the NBA again Maduabum’s presence can be felt throughout the league.  An ambassador to salary dumps, Maduabum’s forgotten legacy will live on in the annals of history through fringe articles like this.