Beate Wagner is a solitary figure sitting in the lower bowl of seats at Amway Center.
In front of her, on the court, the Orlando Magic are moments away from tipping off against the Boston Celtics.
Franz and Moritz Wagner joke around during warmups, unaware of their mother’s presence at that moment. The brothers are happy just to be together — on the same team — for the first time in their lives.
“It’s very exciting,” said Beate Wagner. “They played basketball for tons of years but never together. They played for the same club but never on the same team.”
The Magic drafted Franz Wagner eighth overall, three selections behind Jalen Suggs, in July. The 6-9, 220-pound forward has been a welcome addition to a rebuilding team. More importantly, he’s been a welcome addition for his older brother, Mo, who joined the Magic as a free agent late last season after bouncing from the L.A. Lakers to the Washington Wizards and Celtics since he was a 2018 late first-round draft pick.
“To have family around is everything,” said Mo Wagner. “It’s one of these things you’re missing when it’s gone. We do our best to appreciate it and enjoy it every single day and it’s very special.”
Said Franz Wagner: “It’s good to have someone you can deal with, you can just spend time with and not always talk about basketball.”
Beate Wagner has come a long way from her home in Berlin, Germany, to see her sons play together. As a freelance medical writer, she can travel back and forth to the United States to take part in their lives. She and her husband, Axel Schulz, spent time here when Franz prepared for the draft. Afterward, they traveled back to Germany. Beate returned.
“It’s a dream for me,” she said. “Now we have two homes, Berlin and here.”
Basketball wasn’t the brothers’ first love.
“Everybody kind of started playing soccer in Germany, so I did too,” said Franz Wagner.
Eventually, though, Mo switched to basketball where he developed into a solid player. He played three seasons at Michigan, earning Most Outstanding Player for the 2018 Big Ten Tournament and getting the Wolverines to the national championship game.
“I was the younger brother who wanted to do what his bigger brother was doing,” Franz said of his love affair with basketball. “Watching him play with a pro team back home in Germany, which was super cool playing in front of 15,000 people, and then watching them go to Michigan and do as well as he did all those things had a huge impact on you.”
Franz, 20, who is 4 years younger, followed in Mo’s footsteps. When Mo was leaving college for the NBA, Franz’s first season with the Wolverines was in 2019.
“He was around all the time and we both started playing soccer. He started younger than I did with basketball just because he saw me,” Mo said. “He picked it up quickly and we used to play all the time. I had no mercy on him. It made him better, made him tougher and gave him confidence.”
Mo hasn’t been able to stick in one place. First-round draft picks get four-year contracts, the first two fully guaranteed and the second two are team options. The Celtics waived him in Year 3 to make him a free agent.
The life of a professional athlete isn’t always glamorous, especially for someone so far from home.
“Once I got to the pros, you’re alone a lot and you have a lot of time on your hands and you can spend them with yourself and that was something I had to adjust to a lot,” he said.
When Franz arrived, he rented a house with Mo in Orlando where they spend their time away from the court like most siblings — eating, hanging out and watching TV.
“Having him here now, I look back and don’t know how I did it,” Mo said.
First-year Magic coach Jamahl Mosley enjoys having the brothers on his team.
“They get one another. They have the same type of sense of humor. They laugh at each other; they laugh with each other. You can sense how much love they have for one another,” Mosely said. “Mo Wagner … he’s a great older brother in that he’s teaching Franz about certain situations and Franz gives him a hard time back. But make no mistake about it, they are competitive as heck.”
Franz has started every game for the Magic (3-8) entering Wednesday’s home game vs. the Brooklyn Nets, averaging 13.7 points and shooting 39% from 3 while Mo averages 4.9 points and 2.6 rebounds off the bench in 10 appearances.
“I’ll tell you this, Franz is not a good loser,” said Mo. “When the games not going well and we’re losing, he’s pissed and that was something he had when he was little.”
The brothers are looking forward to the holidays, when everyone can come over.
“We’re going to have Christmas together for the first time in like three years,” Franz said. “It’s going to be cool to have them at the house to be able to share it.”
