“Oh boy, oh boy.”
Those four words brought an unexpected level of immediate concern to John Mobley’s mind. As the father of three daughters already, Mobley was familiar enough with sonograms to know that something was different this time. Inside that doctor’s office in Rochester, New York, he processed the words of the woman holding the wand to his wife, Anna’s, stomach and had a quick thought.
“Uh-oh,” Mobley said, thinking back on that visit more than 20 years ago.
Walking in, he had been nervous to find out the gender of the couple’s fourth child, but deep down he was pretty sure it was going to be another girl. That was more than fine for Mobley, who loved his daughters while also wondering if he would have at least one son. When he heard the sonographer’s words, though, the deeper meaning hadn’t filtered through just yet.
Once they did, everything changed.
“I was like, ‘Boy, oh boy?’ ” he said. “She was like, ‘No, boy oh boy, you’re having a boy.’ ”
This fall, that boy will again be a featured face on the Ohio State men’s basketball team. Entering his junior season with the Buckeyes, John Mobley Jr. – who often goes by “Juni” – will carry the hopes of getting the program deep into the NCAA Tournament across his 6-foot-2, 190-pound frame. Just below those shoulders, and above the No. 0, reads “MOBLEY JR.”
Whether he’s in uniform or not, it’s a name he has carried with him from Upstate New York to Reynoldsburg, Ohio, to Las Vegas and eventually Ohio State.
“It means a lot,” Mobley Jr. said of sharing his father’s name.
John Mobley destined to be a ‘Junior’
The minute he found out they were having a boy, Mobley Sr. knew what his name would be. The Mobleys would be having a Junior, and no debates about names would be necessary.
“I didn’t have to fight for that,” he said with a laugh.
Mobley Sr. had enjoyed a basketball career of his own, playing some junior college ball before a nine-year overseas career as well as time with the E.A. Sports All-Star Team that scrimmaged men’s college basketball teams in the early 2000s. In his mind, there was no doubt that his son would follow in his footsteps as a hooper.
Mobley Jr. said that by the time he was 2 years old he was already starting to practice the game with his dad. Things picked up when he was 5 or 6 years old, he said, and from then on the two were fixtures in the gym. The future Buckeye said they would regularly put in five-hour days at the YMCA on Woodland Ave. just a block away from East High School, laying the foundation for a work ethic that grew to near-legendary renown among the city’s basketball scene.
“At the time, it was hard,” Mobley Jr. said. “It was a lot of long days. It was worth it, but it was tough at the time. Looking back on it, it was definitely something I needed.”
Those workouts continue. Although Mobley Jr. has access to trainers and the resources that Ohio State provides, Mobley Sr. said he still appreciates the texts from his son asking him to be in the gym with him at the Jerome Schottenstein Center at 5 a.m. There, the two work on his game together, father and son dialing in on the details of the game they both love.
Sometimes, when the two are together, the years can start to blur together for the elder Mobley.
“There are things where you stare at him and you’re like, ‘He’s not a baby anymore,’ ” he said. “When I train him and I throw him the ball and he throws it back to me, I see the little kid. ‘Daddy, boom.’ Then I wake up and it’s the weirdest thing.”
The two are different types of players. In his prime, Mobley Sr. was more likely to try and dunk on an opponent than shoot a 3-pointer over him, while his son is more of the opposite. As a sophomore, Mobley Jr. finished sixth in the Big Ten in 3-point shooting percentage, going 97 for 236 (41.1%) despite playing the final seven games with a protective brace on his right (shooting) hand after breaking a bone at the base of his finger during a game.
“He could shoot, but he was more athletic than I am,” Mobley Jr. said of his dad. “He liked to get to the paint. I shoot way better, but in other parts he was more athletic for sure.”
It has always been about more than just basketball, though. His father, Mobley Jr. said, “set the foundation” for what his name should stand for.
Among those values: when it comes to family, you support each other. And when it came to high school, that would be tested at an entirely different level.
Mobleys moved to keep basketball career alive
During the summer of 2020, it looked increasingly unlikely that Mobley Jr. would have a freshman season at Reynoldsburg. With schools pivoting to staggered classes and online learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the viability of prep sports seasons – particularly ones played in enclosed arenas at close proximity, like basketball – was very much in question.
That October, after Mobley Jr. acquitted himself particularly well in a high school scrimmage, the family decided he would attend Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas. The hopes were twofold: that he would have a better chance at playing a full season, and that he would face a higher level of competition there than in central Ohio.
So two weeks after Mobley Jr. arrived on campus, the rest of the family did, too. The Mobleys got a truck, towed their car behind them and made the drive west to support their son’s basketball career.
“We’ve been through everything together,” Mobley Jr. said. “That’s what a family is for, though. Every little thing that happened in my life, he’s been there for it.”
Adding to the challenge: Anna was able to keep her job with Aldi but had to work in Philadelphia, where she was originally from. While she commuted between the two cities, Mobley Sr. kept things running in the household.
“It was rough,” Mobley Sr. said. “We talk about it and the sacrifice of all this, it helped Juni. That made me a little emotional. They would say, ‘Dad, why are you so mad all the time?’ Well, my wife ain’t here.’ ”
They had each other, at least. Mobley Sr. called his son his “road dawg,” a nickname borne out of not just the time in Las Vegas but traveling the world playing AAU basketball for years. The move paid off because, even though Nevada actually canceled the 2020-21 season and Ohio didn’t, Mobley Jr. was working out daily with high-level players and getting stronger.
Rather than feel pressure from the magnitude of what his family did to support his career, Mobley Jr. said his dad helped him feel gratitude instead.
“My dad will try to find a way to take the pressure off,” he said. “He always used to say there’s no such thing as pressure. I try to keep that in my head as well. It was always in the back of my mind that I’ve got to get this done for them, and also for myself just to prove that I could do it.”
This fall, the Mobley family will again be at the Schottenstein Center, watching as their son looks to build off of a breakout sophomore season. Mobley Jr. is the fourth-leading returning scorer in the Big Ten and enters the season in contention for all-league honors as the Buckeyes begin the post-Bruce Thornton era.
It’s all Anna and John Mobley Sr. could have hoped for on the day in Rochester all those years ago, when a flash of concern turned into unbridled joy.
“My day was so happy,” Mobley Sr. said of that appointment. “It was one of those days where you didn’t want to get in the car, you just want to walk.”
Ohio State men’s basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: On Father’s Day, Ohio State’s John Mobley Jr. shares special bond with dad
Reporting by Adam Jardy, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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By Adam Jardy, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
