You may have heard of 6-8 forward Jamario Moon. He's played 4 seasons in the NBA, but played professionally for years before he entered the league.Jamario Raman Moon was born on June 13, 1980 in Goodwater, Alabama. He played ball at Coosa Central High School and originally signed with Missisippi State, but didn't end up playing there because of academic reasons. Instead, he attended Meridian Community College and played basketball there. In the 1999-2000 season, he averaged 20.8 points and 8.7 rebounds in 12 games with the Eagles before being suspended from the team.
Moon went undrafted in the 2001 NBA Draft after entering as an early entry candidate. Despite playing for the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers summer league teams in July 2002, he roamed the minor leagues of basketball for years.
Between 2001 and 2004, he played with two different D-League teams. He played 55 games with the Mobile Revelers and 1 game with the Huntsville Flight. In the summer of 2002, he averaged 10 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks in 3 games with the Dodge City Legend of the USBL.
Moon played for the Harlem Globetrotters in 2004 and played in 7 games for the Kentucky Colonels of the ABA during the 2004-2005 season. While with the Colonels, he averaged 10.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. In that same season, he played in the WBA with the Rome Gladiators and averaged 13.4 points and 6.3 rebounds over the course of 21 games with the team. He helped lead the Gladiators to the 2005 WBA Championship and led the team in blocked shots.
Moon ended up playing for the Marietta Storm of the WBA in 2006 and then the Albany Patroons during the 2006-2007 USBL season.
Moon's big break came on July 10, 2007, when he signed a two-year contract with the Toronto Raptors. As a 27 year-old rookie, he averaged 8.5 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks in 78 games. He was a fan favorite in Toronto and was nicknamed "Apollo 33". He was named the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for January 2008, participated it the 2008 Slam Dunk Contest, and was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team.
Midway through the 2008-2009 season, Moon was traded to the Miami Heat along with Jermaine O'Neal and a 2010 2nd round draft pick for Shawn Marion, Marcus Banks, and cash. He averaged 7.2 points and 4.6 rebounds during 80 games with the Raptors and the Heat that season.
During the 2009 offseason, the Cleveland Cavaliers signed Moon to an offer sheet that the Heat did not match and he ended up playing in 61 games for the Cavs during the 2009-2010 season. The Cavs finished the season with the best record in the Eastern Conference and he played in 11 playoff games with the team before they lost to the Boston Celtics in the Semi-Finals.
Moon stayed with the Cavs for the 2010-2011 season, while LeBron James and Zydrunas Illgauskas left to play with the Heat and Shaquille O'Neal and Delonte West signed with the Celtics. He played in 40 games with the struggling Cavs before being traded to the Los Angeles Clippers along with Mo Williams for Baron Davis and a 2011 first round draft pick (which the Cavs used on Kyrie Irving). Moon averaged career lows in minutes, points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks in 19 games with the Clippers and for the first time in his NBA career, didn't finish the season on a playoff team.
Moon is currently an unrestricted free agent and is hoping to sign with an NBA team after the lockout ends.
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