December 10 th

Good Moon rising

Posted by Cuzzy as NBA, Sports, Toronto Raptors

The press is starting to jump on the Jamario Moon bandwagon.

Six years ago, one of Bryan Colangelo’s current Toronto Raptors starters did not impress him.

Jamario Moon had arrived at the Suns’ practice court in some yellow-brown Nikes that hardly looked like basketball shoes.

Before working out in front of Colangelo, then the Suns’ general manager, and then-Assistant General Manager David Griffin, Moon had been kicked off a junior-college team for academic reasons in 2000, and he had not been selected in the NBA draft.
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“He was an unbelievable athlete, but I told Griff, ‘He’s so far away from being ready for the NBA,’ ” said Colangelo, now the Raptors’ president and GM.

The kid was moons away. Moon then went to an NBA training camp, played on three NBA summer-league teams and played on 13 teams (most of which cut him) in the USBL, NBDL, CBA, ABA, WBA and a Mexican league.

He also showcased his incredible vertical leap for the Harlem Globetrotters.

But after his coach with the CBA’s Albany Patroons, Micheal Ray Richardson, convinced Moon that defense would get him to the NBA, he broke the mold of how to break into the NBA.

At age 27, Moon is a Raptors starter because he stood out at a June free-agent workout that Colangelo held in Toronto.

Over five days, Moon emerged from 30 invitees, even though Colangelo was looking for a backup point guard.

(Full story)

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