There were points along his unconventional journey where the NBA seemed like an impossible dream for Jonathan Mogbo, but the Raptors draft pick will be ready to accept and embrace the challenge head on.
Jul 24, 2024 at 09:33 AM ETJonathan was in his junior year of high school and playing point guard for the Florida Lightning – a 16-and-under travel UAA team based out of Miami. However, the Mogbo family lived more than 70 miles away in West Palm Beach.
and his older brother Jace, sons of Fab Five legend Juwan Howard – but his determination set him apart. It always has.Mogbo was raised in Wellington, FLA, about 16 miles west of West Palm Beach. His mom is Jamaican and his dad, Chuck, is of Nigerian descent. The two friends played AAU together for a couple years before Barnes switched teams, but they kept in contact and then reconnected when both ended up at Cardinal Newman High School. Needing a place to stay that was closer to the school, Mogbo and his mother took Barnes in. He lived with them for his entire freshman year.
Mogbo, who stood 5-foot-9, was in his shadow, sometimes literally. Ms. Mogbo has a photo of the two boys standing side by side, shoulder to shoulder – only one of their friends had to lift Jonathan up to fit into the picture. That’s all Mogbo had to hear. He was all in. No matter how unlikely the dream seemed, he was going to find a way to make it happen.
Still, unlike Barnes, who played his lone college season at Florida State, there were no Division I offers coming in. Mogbo had to bear another path, one that took him to four different schools in four years. Barnes was just as shocked. He came over to the house and first thing he and Mogbo did was measure each other standing back-to-back. This time, when they stood shoulder to shoulder, there was no booster necessary.
As it turned out, his late growth spurt was a blessing in disguise. He had grown up playing guard and developing ball skills – the ability to handle, see the floor and pass. Suddenly, he also had the size to fully unleash the physicality he’d been playing with since he was a husky linebacker in peewee football.
“I don’t think he picked up the phone for many people,” Bankhead said. “So, I think just him having my name in his phone and having a previous relationship helped the situation quite a bit.” After seeing him play at a mid-season tournament, the team told Barnes they had been scouting Mogbo, and while he gave his best friend a full endorsement, he also didn’t think much of it at the time. What were the odds that they would end up together in Toronto?
All he needed to do was get his foot in the door and he was going to break it down. That opportunity presented itself in the form of a late invite to the combine in May, and he took advantage. In one instance, his flight got delayed on his way to workout for the Knicks. He didn’t land in New York until after 3:00 a.m. or get to his hotel until 5:00 a.m., with the workout scheduled for four hours later. But not only was he there, he showed up early and he impressed.
The Raptors, who were blown away by his workout in Toronto earlier that month, may have considered him at 19 if Ja’Kobe Walter wasn’t available. They were pleasantly surprised he was still there at 31; they had him ranked in the early-20s. But unlike past years, when they would’ve had a few minutes to make their selection in between rounds, they were on the clock for nearly 17 hours thanks to the league’s new two-night draft format.
“I invited him, but I didn’t think he was going to come down,” Mogbo said. “When I got called, I looked over at everyone smiling, my mom’s happy and everything, next thing you know I’m looking in the back and I see him trying to shed a tear ... I’m not supposed to expose him, but I heard he ended up crying. It was tears of joy.”
“With the way our system is, with the way that the game of basketball is going in the NBA, IQ and a feel for the game is so important,” said Raptors assistant general manager Dan Tolzman. “And he’s a guy that checks off a lot of those boxes in terms of understanding how to play. You can plug him in at different spots within our system.”
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