diff --git a/python/cuml/neighbors/nearest_neighbors.pyx b/python/cuml/neighbors/nearest_neighbors.pyx
index a35943a8a2..ac5b15c03f 100644
--- a/python/cuml/neighbors/nearest_neighbors.pyx
+++ b/python/cuml/neighbors/nearest_neighbors.pyx
@@ -362,7 +362,7 @@ class NearestNeighbors(Base,
 
         if is_sparse(X):
             valid_metrics = cuml.neighbors.VALID_METRICS_SPARSE
-            value_metric_str = "_SPARSE"
+            valid_metric_str = "_SPARSE"
             self.X_m = SparseCumlArray(X, convert_to_dtype=cp.float32,
                                        convert_format=False)
             self.n_rows = self.X_m.shape[0]