“I would rather tame a lion that teach a cat how to roar, so to speak.” This was how Germany’s coach, Gordon Herbert, described the Deutsch brothers, Moritz Wagner and Franz Wagner. That statement in itself speaks volumes about the Berlin natives. But then again, fans of the Wagner brothers back in the States are already aware of this. Playing for the Orlando Magic, the two have already won plenty of hearts with their aggressive attacks, deadly precision, and playful personality.
Moritz Wagner is the oldest of the pair. Born on 26 April 1997, the 6’11, 245-pound center is 27 years old. Basketball, unsurprisingly, wasn’t Moe’s first choice of sport. After all, basketball trails far behind soccer in popularity in Deutschland. “Everybody kind of started playing soccer in Germany, so I did too,” Wagner revealed during a casual interview with Matt Murschel for Orlando Sentinel in 2021. But somewhere along the way, he switched to basketball and stuck with it.
Moritz Wagner finds his footing in basketball
Seeing a future in the field, Moritz then made sure he would find success in it. His arrival at the University of Michigan was no intervention of fate or a lucky coincidence. A former coaching acquaintance from Germany reached out to the then-Michigan Wolverines’ head coach, John Beilein, in 2014 via email regarding Wagner. The young hooper, for his part, sent a self-made highlight video to Beilein, as well.
And it worked. To an extent.
(this story is still developing)
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