{"id":116926,"date":"2026-01-13T22:06:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T22:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/116926\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T22:06:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T22:06:06","slug":"orlando-magic-hold-first-nba-practice-of-berlin-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/116926\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic hold first NBA practice of Berlin trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Magic<\/a> held their first practice at Max-Schmeling-Halle arena in Berlin, Germany on Tuesday ahead of Thursday\u2019s game against the Grizzlies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Orlando<\/a> star forward Franz Wagner<\/a>, who\u2019s missed the last 16 games due to a left high ankle sprain, went through practice with Jamahl Mosley<\/a>\u2018s squad and shared how he felt afterward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel good,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cIt felt good to move a little bit after the long flight. And I\u2019m excited for Thursday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether or not he can play against Memphis<\/a>, Wagner understands just how massive of a moment it is for his home country when the NBA holds its first regular-season game in Germany later this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be really cool,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a great day not just for everybody at the game but I think for German basketball in general. So, I\u2019m excited to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

His older brother, Moe Wagner<\/a>, agrees with the sentiment.<\/p>\n

More than 250,000 fans registered their interest in tickets to the game in Berlin, the highest demand ever for an NBA game in Europe, according to the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless if he plays or not, I think just generally the body of work is so big and significant that it doesn\u2019t really matter if he plays or not,\u201d Moe Wagner said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there should be too much on that. Health is the most important thing and the reason we\u2019re here is him. You know? So, I don\u2019t think we should put too much pressure on the fact whether he\u2019s playing or not. We\u2019ll enjoy it either way.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually playing is the smallest part,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019re here driving through the city, we\u2019re seeing our friends (and) we\u2019re combining our two worlds together. That means the world to us. So, that\u2019s the main thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moe Wagner understands how important health is more than most players in the Magic locker room.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-11 center played in his first game in more than a year Sunday after recovering from a torn ACL in his left knee. In his first game back, Wagner notched eight points, two rebounds and two assists in 10 restricted minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201c(My) body feels good,\u201d the Magic center said when asked how he felt days after his first game back. \u201cThe rehab process itself isn\u2019t over yet just because you start playing, so I\u2019m still adjusting. But overall, I would say I got out of it pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

After welcoming Moe Wagner back with open arms, the Magic hope to get Franz Wagner back soon, too.<\/p>\n

Orlando has gone 8-8 since the forward went down Dec. 7 at New York. In that stretch, the team\u2019s offensive rating (112.5) sat 22nd league-wide, defensive rating (116.0) was 21st and net rating (minus-3.5) was 25th, according to NBA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the 16 games before Franz Wagner\u2019s injury, the Magic were 10th league-wide in offensive rating (117.6), fifth in defensive rating (111.3) and seventh in net rating (plus-6.3), per NBA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Getting him back won\u2019t solve all of Orlando\u2019s problems \u2014 the team has also been without Jalen Suggs<\/a> for 12 of the last 14 games \u2014 but even Franz\u00a0 Wagner has noticed the team slow down on both ends of the court when watching from the sidelines since his injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve got to find a (way) a little bit back to our identity, play a little better defense and continue to work on our halfcourt offense and figure out how we can be more effective,\u201d Wagner said.<\/p>\n

While the focus for Orlando (22-18) is to handle its business on the court against Memphis (17-22), the experience so far off the court has been surreal as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the practice starts and game starts, you kind of want to keep the main thing, the main thing,\u201d Moe Wagner said. \u201cBut driving through the streets with the team bus and all of that stuff, it\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Up next \u2026<\/p>\n

Magic vs. Grizzlies<\/p>\n

When:\u00a02 p.m., Thursday, Uber Arena (Berlin, Germany)<\/p>\n

TV:\u00a0FanDuel Sports Network Florida\/Amazon Prime Video<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Magic held their first practice at Max-Schmeling-Halle arena in Berlin, Germany on Tuesday ahead of Thursday\u2019s game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,2295,139,141,1239,140,109,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-116926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-headlines","12":"tag-orlando-magic","13":"tag-orlando-news","14":"tag-social","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}