By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
Imagine telling your descendants that you used to play professional basketball in the same team as your brother, in the NBA. On top of that, imagine saying that you won one bronze medal at EuroBasket and then you found yourself on top of the world, claiming gold after beating Team USA and Serbia.
That’s the Wagner brothers’ life, as Moritz and Franz not only share their daily experiences with the Orlando Magic but have also been two of the most important assets in Gordon Herbert’s national team since the start of this new successful program.
Entering the Quarter-Finals stage in their first Olympic Games together – the second one for Mo after Tokyo 2021 -, they destroyed France in the last game of Group B in Lille.
Not gonna lie, we are still thinking of this dunk by Franz Wagner 🥶🇩🇪
Is this the dunk of the tournament? 🤔 #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/BhjZYzZDDH
— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) August 3, 2024
While Moritz put physical presence and effort into conditionate the French national team’s centers, Frnz stole the show with a brilliant 26-point night that included two poster dunks that left Victor Wembanyama speechless.
At the moment, they are the flashiest and most interesting brotherhood duo in the basketball scene worldwide, and they want to complete the three-year program by capturing another medal, the first one for German basketball at the Olympics.
They could become another couple of brothers capable of achieving such an outstanding goal, and the latest of such duos to capture everybody’s attention not only as brothers but also as countrymen and national teammates. The list gets larger, but there are other cases from the past and present.
Pau and Marc Gasol – Spain
When it comes to putting the words “brothers” and “basketball” together, you can’t list anything but start with the Gasol brothers. They have been the future, present, and past of the movement in Spain.
Franz and Moritz Wagner would be extremely satisfied if they achieve even half of Marc and Pau’s resumes, which also include two silver medals won together at the Olympic Games, in London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016, losing on both occasions to USA Basketball in the final.
The Gasol duo also contributed together to the Spanish national team’s gold success at the World Cup in 2006 and in four EuroBasket medals (gold in 2009 and 2011, silver in 2007, and bronze in 2017).