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He is the high flyer: Franz Wagner
Photo: Grant Halverson/Getty Images
Franz Wagner's birthday was a week ago.
Social media clips showed him celebrating with the German national basketball team;
a shy-looking man with a goatee who seemed embarrassed by the attention of the jeering teammates.
A week later, last Sunday, over 18,000 fans in Cologne looked at the same young man - and he liked the attention.
»Let's goooo«, Wagner yelled at the audience in the middle of the fourth quarter, in the overtime thriller against Lithuania at the home European Championship (109:107).
The cheering that erupted in response was one of the loudest moments of an already loud evening.
Wagner and his teammates had just joined forces to stop Jonas Valanciunas.
Something that rarely came off that night, the Lithuanian scored 34 points, the most in the tournament so far.
Wagner held back with 32 points, eight rebounds and two blocks - all best values in the German team.
And there was more.
There were clever passes.
There were outstanding defensive sequences, like the one against Valanciunas.
And there was this emotional outburst, this »Let's goooo«, which is somehow also a manifesto of his rapid transformation.
Because Franz Wagner, the 21-year-old newcomer, who only made his national team debut this summer, was not yelling.
Franz Wagner roared, the 21-year-
old
leader, who carried his team to their third win in the third game that evening - and thus not only to the round of 16, but also to the best German start in the history of the European Championship.
"Franz played unbelievably," said team captain Dennis Schröder, who contributed 25 points.
“If he continues like this, he will be a very, very big one.” In the evening he can prove how good Wagner already is: Against Slovenia with NBA superstar Luka Dončić (8.30 p.m., Magentasport) it is about winning the group ( here is the schedule).
Alongside Schröder and Dirk Nowitzki, Wagner is now the third German basketball player to score 30 points or more at a European Championship.
The fact that he needed three games to achieve this record fits the career of the 2.08 meter tall forward, who has had a career in the fast lane so far.
It all started at Alba Berlin.
In April 2018, at the age of 16, Wagner replaced his brother Moritz as the youngest Bundesliga player in the club's history.
In 2019 he was honored as the best young German player in the league.
A year later he followed his brother's example and went to Michigan.
Unlike Moritz, he was a top performer in his first college season, and after the second he was already ready for the NBA.
He was drafted eighth in the Talents draft by the Orlando Magic, ahead of Nowitzki (9) and Schröder (17).
The team raves about Wagner
In his first NBA game, he hit six of nine shots for a total of 12 points, twelve days later he put on 28.
Two months later, he handed the then-champion, the Milwaukee Bucks, 38 points.
A man like a kettle: quickly up to temperature.
Performances like these gave hope that Wagner would hardly have any start-up problems in the DBB dress.
Rightly so, as it turned out: Eight points at the start against France (76:63), 18 in the next game against Bosnia (92:82), now 32 against Lithuania - and as mentioned before: Wagner is not one who primarily cares about scoring Are defined.
At least not yet.
NBA scouts ranked him primarily as a versatile, game-smart defender (which he is).
But now Wagner is getting better and better at creating offense, for himself and others.
To do this, he uses his almost ideal basketball length and his amazing light-footedness for his size.
He also uses his arsenal of effective, space-consuming moves.
Above all, however, he uses his head: Wagner plays conspicuously smart basketball.
His strong understanding of the game was also often shown in things he
doesn't
do: in difficult throws, for example, which he
doesn't
take just because he's in a good mood.
On beautiful but risky passes that he
doesn't
dare.
Dribbling he
doesn't
pick up to make the game fast instead.
Of course he doesn't act flawlessly, but overall there is little that is 21-year-old about the 21-year-old.
In the evening, NBA superstar Doncic is waiting
Maodo Lo also observed this: »What impresses me is the maturity with which Franz plays.
He has a certain calm and confidence in his game,” said the German playmaker.
Barely two minutes later, he concluded his ode with the words: "It's a blessing to have him on the team."
Later that evening, Lo struck a different note.
"I'll lie down in the ice bin now - up to here," the guard told SPIEGEL and tapped his shoulder with his hand, suggesting a line.
"Today was tough."
However, there is not much time for regeneration in a final round.
The next opponent, Slovenia, the 2017 European champions, has the most powerful offensive of the tournament so far (96 points per game).
It is led by NBA superstar Doncic (Dallas Mavericks).
His class as a playmaker and scorer is so high that his team can afford ten bad minutes as long as he follows three good ones.
How well Germany's defensive can control this man is uncertain: So far, the DBB selection had to survive against high-class Big Men.
The German basketball players are now faced with the most difficult test so far.
In any case, Franz Wagner has always grown with the increasing challenges.
