MALAGA, Spain– DJ Wagner has been considered the No 1 or 2 prospect in the class of 2022 for most of the current live period, his candidacy buoyed by his performance in the EBYL circuit where he averaged over 20 points a game for the New Jersey Scholars.
The 6-5 Camden High guard set off one of the great recruiting wars recently when Kentucky and Louisville both got heavily involved, setting off one of the great recruiting wars in the country. Wagner’s father Dajuan was an All American and a lottery pick when he played for current Kentucky coach John Calipari at Memphis in 2002. Both scouts felt DJ was a lock for the Cats when he was a junior. But Louisville jumped into the fray when newly minted Cards’ coach Kenny Payne, a former Kentucky assistant and long time friend hired DJ’s grandfather Milt who was a star on Louisvlle’s 1986 national championship team, as an assistant, complicating the situation and setting off the biggest recruiting war in the Commonwealth since 1985 when King Rex Chapman chose Kentucky over Louisville. .
Both schools have been a constant presence at DJ’s games during the observation period, with Cardinals’ stopping out all the stops during Wagner’s EBYL stop in Louisville when three former players– Darrell Griffith, Pervis Ellison and Russ Smith — who had their number retired were among 15 former Cardinal stars who showed up at his games. More recently, assistant Nolan Smith showing up here to watch Wagner play for USA Basketball in the U17 World Championship group games in nearby Marbella only to be upstaged when Calipari made the trip here to make a final visual pitch.
The high school scouting gurus who follow this things are constantly changing their opinion on where Wagner will eventually sign. Kentucky is getting the most buzz these days because of Calipari’s 20year relationship with Dajuan Sr..
Wagner, who attended Kingsway. NJ Regional junior high, could have played high school ball at any school in the country. But he wanted to follow in the family’s footsteps and play for the High. “I’ve been going to Camden games since I was little,” he said. His game blew up the last two years playing for demanding Rick Brunson, who won two state Group 2 titles before leaving to becoming an assistant with the NBA New York knicks, where he will help coach his son Jalen, the 2018 national College Plyer of the Year at Villanova.
Wagner has watched films of his grandfather and father who were both good enough to make money off the NIL if they played in a different era.
DJ has the enough talent to get paid today as more and more money seeps into high school basketball and into the hands of the elite one-and-done prospects.
This is the future of the game. “It’s gotten crazy out there,” he said.
USA players have been told to refrain from commenting on whether high school players should be legally paid by NIL, but it will affect most kids’ college decisions or they don’t turn pro right out of high school.
Wagner figures to get paid at either of the Commonwealth schools, who are in an arms race after since national Player of the Year Oscar Tshbeiwe, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, announced he was coming back to Kentucky and would sign NIL deals worth over $2 million dollars after clearing some hurdles regarding his FI student visa.
We ‘ve already read all the stories about Mikey Williams, the 6-2 California five-star prodigy who dunked at age 12 and whose exploits at San Ysidro, Calif. High went viral when he scored 77 points as a freshman three years ago. Williams, a rising senior with 3.2 million Instagram subscribers, has since signed a contract with Excel Sports Management to pursue name, image and likeness endorsement opportunities and now has a multi-year endorsement contract with Puma, making him the first American high school player to sign a sneaker deal with a global footwear company, as a 17-yaer old.
Then, there is LeBron’s kid, Bronny a 6-4 guard from Sierra Canyon Calif. High School, a Top 50 prospect who began receiving scholarship offers at age 10 and has signed with esports organization FeZe clan.
They may have a big profile than Wagner, but he has a bigger upside than both.
Wagner, who just turned 17 in May, made the U S. junior team last June. He is wearing No 12, the inverse of his Camden number, and was in the starting lineup and has made a successful transition from travel ball to the international game, which is more physical and a lot slower than the game he plays in the states. Wagner is averaging 9.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and two steals over the first six games, scoring 12 Saturday as the USA defeated Lithuania 89-62 to advance to another gold medal final. He is shooting 41.8 percent with just two threes but is 7 of 8 from the line, solid but not chart busting numbers. But it doesn’t really matter on this team, where 11 different players had scored double figures for a high-powered offensive team averaging 103 points against physical international competition.
It is the other parts of his game that stand out, according to coach Sharman White.
“He defends. He’s our best guy getting to the rim, and he’s brought into what we do,” White said. “His future is so bright. His skill sets are phenomenal He may not score a ton but he is .an effective winner.”
Wagner is poised and can play at any speed for the Americans, who are working on extending an unbeaten 42 game winning streak since this competition began.
