Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes was a happy camper during last month’s NBA Draft, as the team drafted one of his long-time friends.
After selecting Ja’Kobe Walter using the No. 19 pick, the Toronto Raptors selected Jonathan Mogbo with the No. 31 pick, which caused Barnes to shed tears of joy because his close friend had made it to the NBA.
“I was super excited. That’s my boy. Like I’ve been saying, that’s been my boy since third grade, my best friend. I’m just super excited, super proud for him,” Barnes said about Mogbo via Aaron Rose of SI.com.
“He’s a high IQ player, he passes the ball pretty well. And he’s very unselfish. So when you’re very unselfish and you have those intangibles where you can block shots, you can move your feet, you can guard, that’s gonna be great. And then everything else just developed from there with some time,” he added.
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Jonathan Mogbo played for San Francisco last season and was named West Coast Conference Newcomer of the Year and first-team All-WCC, with averages of 14.2 points and a conference-high 10.1 rebounds per contest.
He and Scottie Barnes have been friends since elementary, and they’ll do everything they’ve dreamt of together in the NBA at Scotiabank Arena, starting next season.
Jonathan Mogbo is the Toronto Raptors’ newest project
Jonathan Mogbo isn’t expected to crack into the Toronto Raptors’ rotation right away next season, but he has the tools to carve out a long NBA career.
At 6’9″ and 225 pounds, the 22-year-old is the prototypical Masai Ujiri pick, as he is a versatile wing defender with good perimeter skills.
During an interview with Corey Tulaba of No Ceilings NBA, Mogbo said he models his game after Scottie Barnes, Draymond Green, PJ Washington, and Naz Reid.
