The German basketball world and European champion Franz Wagner dreams of one day being named an NBA all-star. “I can’t deny that I would like to be there. It’s nonsense to say: ‘I don’t care,'” the 24-year-old admitted in the interview basketball-world.news a. At the same time, he emphasized that it was “exactly these awards and things” that “it’s not really about. Everyone wants to be an all-star, but that requires trust.”
Wagner, who suffered an ankle sprain at the beginning of December, will be there when a regular season game in the North American professional league is played on German soil for the first time on Thursday (7:30 p.m./Prime Video): his Orlando Magic will meet the Memphis Grizzlies in Berlin.
Orlando is currently in sixth place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference – according to Wagner, the pressure to perform in the best basketball league in the world doesn’t bother him too much: “Basically, I think it’s really cool to have this pressure to win,” he said.
Winning makes him “addictive,” said Wagner, who won the European Championship title with the German national team last September. “It’s like a dopamine hit, and you have to be careful that it doesn’t completely take over you.” He was particularly impressed by the solidarity in the German team: “The fact that we can achieve something great together that we wouldn’t be able to do alone – that was fulfilling.” In Berlin, Wagner could play again together with his brother Moritz, who made his comeback for Orlando at the weekend after a long injury break in the 128:118 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
