The NBA is in the DNA of DJ Wagner. The oldest will remember his father, Dajuan Wagner (6th choice of the 2002 Draft), a big talent cut down too early by injuries. The even older ones will even remember his grandfather, Milt Wagner, NCAA champion in 1986 with Louisville then in the NBA, in 1988, with the Lakers.
The younger ones will logically prefer to follow his rise, as the youngest from the third generation of a family of basketball players in the NBA.
A high school student in Camden, New Jersey, like his father, DJ Wagner also followed in his footsteps at the NCAA level, joining John Calipari. The father played in Memphis during the 2001/02 season, the son plays this season in Kentuckya veritable factory for future NBA leaders for years.
More than twenty years after his father, the 18-year-old leader therefore hopes to experience the same success under the orders of “Coach Cal”, to in turn become, next June, a “one-and-done” and a “lottery pick”. In any case, he has the talent for it, and his first outings of the season, at the GLOBL Jam in Toronto in recent days, have confirmed it.
A boss in a young pack of Wildcats
At the helm of a team that easily won the tournament, DJ Wagner naturally imposed himself as the (young) boss of this (young) pack of Wildcats (average age of 19), displaying a level narrowly in his decisions already well advanced for a “freshman” (14 points and 4.8 assists in four games).
” DJ… sacred player », thus reacted John Calipari, after winning the gold medal for his Wildcats. ” He can shoot and attack the circle because he is strong. In defense, it’s a ringworm, he doesn’t let go. »
To the good memory of the 64-year-old technician, who notes however that the father, author of an enormous “freshman” campaign with 21.2 points and 3.6 assists per game during the 2001/02 season, was more physically developed.
” They are two different players. He has the same competitive spirit as his father, but his father was more explosive. And a little more arsonist too. He was drawing far behind the line, you shouldn’t leave him the slightest space recalls an amused John Calipari. ” While I have to tell [DJ] to be sharper. When he takes his shots while being defended, he scores. When he draws slower, it’s not the same shot. »
In any case, like every season for more than ten years now, there will once again be a very talented “freshman” point guard to follow closely, in Lexington…
