The German national basketball team has to do without NBA professional Moritz Wagner at short notice, both in preparation and at the European Championship.
As the German Basketball Association (DBB) announced, the 25-year-old Orlando Magic professional can no longer be used this summer due to an ankle injury.
“I’ll tell you how it is. It hurts,” Wagner said in a statement from the association: “I’ve been looking forward to this tournament and this opportunity for years: to play in Germany, in Cologne and in my city of Berlin, with my brother a home European Championship, was something that I had been dreaming of for a long time.”
National coach: “It’s a hard blow”
Moritz Wagner is now absent from the European Championships with games in Cologne and Berlin (September 1 to 18), just like the other NBA professionals Isaac Bonga, Maximilian Kleber and Isaiah Hartenstein. Bonga recently underwent surgery, both Kleber and Hartenstein opted out.
The team of national coach Gordon Herbert is led by the experienced NBA players Dennis Schröder and Daniel Theis as well as the younger of the two Wagner brothers, Franz Wagner. “It’s a hard blow for us and especially for himself,” said coach Herbert about the injury to the 2.11 meter tall Moritz Wagner.
After the failure, there are currently 17 players in the DBB squad. Herbert had already announced that the squad should be significantly reduced this week. First up is a friendly in Belgium, followed by another preparatory meeting in the Netherlands on August 12th.
