Moritz Wagner

BIOGRAPHY

Moritz Wagner was born on April 26, 1997, in Berlin, Germany. He is a center in the NBA.

Wagner started his basketball career in the youth ranks of Alba Berlin. In 2013–14, Wagner played for the club's under-19 Bundesliga squad, which won the German championship. In 2014–15, he played on Alba Berlin's Bundesliga roster. Wagner won gold with the German national team at the 2014 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship Division B in Bulgaria.

Wagner first came to the attention of University of Michigan head coach John Beilein in 2014 through an email from a former coaching acquaintance in Germany. Wagner also used social contacts to forward a self-made highlight video to Beilein. Ultimately, Beilein flew to Berlin to recruit Wagner. In April 2015, Wagner announced his decision to attend the University of Michigan and play for the Michigan Wolverines. By opting to go to college, he turned down an offer to play professionally. 

Wagner played for the University of Michigan from 2015 through his junior season for the 2017–18 Wolverines team. After his sophmore season, he averaged 16.1 points per contest and was Germany's leading scorer at the 2017 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship. In his senior year, he was a 2018 All-Big Ten second team selection by both the coaches and the media. Following the season, Wagner was the 2018 Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament MVP helping the team earn the Big Ten Tournament championship for the second time in a row. He was also named to the West Region All-Tournament Team and Final Four All-Tournament Team during the 2018 NCAA Basketball Tournament. On April 14, 2018, Wagner announced that he would enter the 2018 NBA draft and hire an agent. On May 1, Wagner signed with Roc Nation's Joe Branch, who has represented former Michigan teammate Caris LeVert. Later that day, he received an invitation to the NBA Draft combine.

On June 21, 2018, Wagner was selected with the 25th overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. On December 2, in a 120–96 victory against the Phoenix Suns, Wagner scored his first NBA points (a pair of free throws) and finished the game with 10 points.  On March 9, 2019, Wagner scored a career-high 22 points with six rebounds, three assists and a block in his first career start in a 107–120 loss to the Boston Celtics. On July 6, 2019, Wagner was traded to the Washington Wizards, along with Isaac Bonga, Jemerrio Jones, and a 2022 second-round pick, in a three-team trade.