After a strong rookie season in the NBA, Franz Wagner is about to make his debut in the national team. The goal for the home EM is clear, he wants to go back to his hometown Berlin – it’s about the medals there.
Franz Wagner stood sweaty in the Cologne training hall. After his very first sessions with the national team, the NBA basketball player was already thinking about the upcoming European Championships – and also about his hometown. “We all want to go to Berlin,” said the 20-year-old, on the Spree it’s about the medals in just over a month.
After a remarkable first season in the best league in the world, debutant Wagner is one of the great hopes of the German team. The small forward averaged 15.2 points per game for Orlando Magic, which made him the first German to be called up to the “All-Rookie First Team”. Not even Dirk Nowitzki managed to do that.
Unlike Nowitzki and also unlike his older brother Moritz (25), who wore an eagle jersey at the Olympics in Tokyo, Franz Wagner has not yet played an international match in the senior team. He belonged to the German U16, also to the U18, but on Wednesday Wagner is in the test against hosts Belgium in Hasselt (8.30 p.m.) for the first time with the “big ones”.
His impressions so far are good. “I think the team chemistry is already extremely good, we have good energy in training,” said Wagner at the Basketball Campus Cologne, a good eight kilometers from the Lanxess Arena, where the selection played their preliminary round matches of the EuroBasket (1st to 18th . September) disputes.
Franz Wagner: medal chance? “Is realistic”
Wagner thinks big with a view to the highlight with the final round in Berlin. The chance of a medal, not only the declared goal of national coach Gordon Herbert, is absolutely there. “I definitely think that’s realistic,” said Wagner.
Basically, of course, every athlete wants to “always get the best out of it”. The former college player thinks that there is a declared goal – in contrast to the disappointing 2019 World Cup. “If you go in with your shoulders down, then it won’t work anyway,” said Wagner, “we go in with confidence.”
European Championship games are taking place in Germany for the first time since 2015, and Wagner was there in Berlin at the time – in the stands. “I was in the arena as a fan, the atmosphere was extremely blatant,” said Wagner, “that’s a great memory for me.” Seven years ago, the selection of the German Basketball Federation (DBB) failed with Nowitzki in the preliminary round, it was the last use of the German idol in the national jersey. It should be different this time.
“It’s super cool that we can play at home,” says Wagner, “we’re extremely happy, the parents are extremely happy.” Alongside his brother, Dennis Schröder and Daniel Theis, he is one of four professionals in the squad who played in the NBA last season. The potential is enormous.
“I knew before training that great players were coming, that we all have a lot of talent,” said the newcomer: “We’re all really looking forward to the challenge.”
