NICKNAME/S: Mr. Double-Double, Moon-man, Moondog

BIO: John Mooney was born in Altamonte Springs, Florida (USA), where he attended Lake Brantley High School. As a senior, he averaged 24.8 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks per game and was named to the first-team all-state.

FAMILY: Mooney is the son of Margaret and Kevin Mooney, a builder/contractor for an appliance company who played Division II golf at Spring Hill College. He has two older siblings, Brendan and Caitlin. Mooney began playing for Nike Team Florida in AAU play alongside Florida coach Billy Donovan’s son Bryan in eighth grade.

NBL EXPERIENCE

John Mooney made his NBL debut with the Perth Wildcats at 22 years of age. He scored 13 points in his first game.

On August 14, 2020, Mooney signed a one-year deal with Perth during a difficult year where twice the league was delayed due to Covid. Perth and the rest of the NBL were then forced to play eight games in Melbourne in a attempt to escape Covid related travel restrictions.

As a result, the Wildcats struggled to begin the season, sitting in 7th position after the first 5 rounds but a strong showing in the mid-season tournament (The NBL Cup) allowed Perth to right their ship.

With league MVP Bryce Cotton firing alongside new recruit John Mooney (16.9 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 2.9 assists), the Perth juggernaut returned to the top of the ladder and appeared to be heading towards a third straight championship. Fate would intervene however, first with star import Bryce Cotton suffering a season ending injury in the last round of the regular season. Despite this they still managed to finish in second place and then magically pull through a wild semifinal series against Illawarra.

In his first NBL game, Mooney recorded a double-double (13 points and 14 rebounds) in a win over South East Melbourne (88–76), becoming the first Wildcat to do that since 2007, and went on to finish the season with 27 double-doubles in 42 games – the second most single season effort ever by a Wildcat. Mooney’s 11.4 rebounds per game also sits eighth highest in club history, with his total of 480 rebounds being the third highest single season effort in NBL history.

The Wildcats would then face off against a red-hot Melbourne United, who finished the regular season in first place and had been equally impressive all year.

Although game one and 2 of the Grand Final series had to be played in Perth as a result of COVID-19 travel restrictions, Dean Vickerman’s side survived a late scare to win game one by three points before blowing the Wildcat’s out of the water in game two thanks to a 21-point performance from Chris Goulding.

Injuries to Mitch Norton saw Perth struggle with none of their key backcourt rotation at full strength. Kevin White stepped up during this time and delivered the best three-game performance of his career, but Perth seemingly had exhausted themselves overcoming Illawarra. Perth would be lose convincingly to Melbourne, losing three straight games.

With restrictions lifted game three was held on Melbourne’s home court and in front of a sold-out 5,000-strong crowd at John Cain Arena (the maximum allowed within Covid restrictions) United defeated Perth 81-76 in game three. Melbourne’s Jock Landale (15 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 assists and 2 blocks) delivered a truly dominating performance to finish the series, taking home the Finals MVP award as Melbourne collected their sixth NBL championship, their second under the United branding.

At the end of the season, Mooney was voted as the Wildcats Club MVP.

John Mooney played one season in the NBL. He averaged 16.9 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in 42 NBL games.

CAREER RANKINGS:
– 33rd in rebounds per game.

Dan Boyce (836 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.