by Mike Ulmer
--raptors.com
May 2, 2008

Video: Jamario Moon end of season presser

(TORONTO) - Jamario Moon knows there is no letup.

So after a couple of weeks of rest he will be back on the court and in the weight room. He wants to build on one of the most improbable ever Raptor seasons.

Moon, an earnest, engaging native of Goodwater, Alabama, came to the Raptors as a basketball vagabond after stops that included semi-pro teams and clubs in Europe.

Finally given a chance, he started 75 games, the most of any Raptor save for Anthony Parker. Moon averaged just a hair under 28 minutes, 6.2 rebounds and 8.5 points a night. The season included a 15-rebound effort against Denver, a 17-point night against Orlando and consideration for Rookie of the Year honours.

Moon scoffs at the idea of a leisurely summer. For one thing, the team has a club option for next year and Moon takes nothing for granted.

For another, vacations are for the other guy.

“It’s been like seven years since I had a summer off,” said Moon. “I don’t know how to take a summer off. I have to keep working and keep doing the things I was doing.”

The notion of a 27-year-old rookie who played for everyone from the Albany Patroons, the Harlem Globetrotters and the Rome Gladiators was a good-news item that followed the Raptors all year. Reporters, regardless of the city, found in Moon a great story.

“The thing about that great story was that it was fun. It brought a lot of attention to me and to the Raptors,” Moon said. “You want to keep the story going with a whole lot more stories, like Friday The 13th, only with a better ending.”

Moon is an explosive player with great leaping ability and he came to a team desperately needing the kind of rebounding he could deliver.

Still, Mitchell did not expect to dress him for more than 30 or 35 games. Instead, Moon worked so hard in practice, Mitchell slid him into the lineup in his fifth game.

“It was great to put him out there and to see how pleased we were and how pleased his teammates were,” Mitchell said. “Not to say he was perfect, but he did a lot of good things for our basketball team.”

Like Jose Calderon the season before, Moon was Mitchell’s favourite target in practice, the one player he badgered more than any other.

“Jamario was my Jose this year,” Mitchell said. “I tell him all the time, ‘don’t worry when I’m yelling at you. Worry when I’m not talking to you.’”

Moon is determined that as good as this season was, next year will be better.

He wants to add 10 pounds, a gain that would bring him to 225 and allow him to elevate toward the rim. Mitchell wants him bringing the ball inside to pressure the defence and generate foul shots.

That doesn’t leave much time for resting.

Besides, Moon doesn’t golf.

“Can’t see the ball,” he says.