The cycle in the Wagner family goes something like this: the older generation is playing, next generation is watching, love for the game is cultivated.
It’s a cycle now three generations strong and on the verge of doing something no family has ever done in the sport.
For three generations to play in the National Basketball Association.
Milt “Ice” Wagner vividly remembers bringing his son Dajuan to Los Angeles Lakers’ practices during the 1987-1988 season.
The cycle in the Wagner family goes something like this: the older generation is playing, next generation is watching, love for the game is cultivated.
It’s a cycle now three generations strong and on the verge of doing something no family has ever done in the sport.
For three generations to play in the National Basketball Association.
Milt “Ice” Wagner vividly remembers bringing his son Dajuan to Los Angeles Lakers’ practices during the 1987-1988 season.
“He sat in the stands at five years old,” Wagner recalled. “I played with Magic Johnson, Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], James Worthy, so I was with all the greats. He ran on the court, he wanted to participate in practice and at five years old, I had to go to him and say, ‘You’re going to get your time to work out after our practice is over. So just sit here and just wait for a couple hours, and I’ll get you on the court. So that right there, I’d say it was destined.’”
Destined to be one of the few father-son duos to make it into the NBA.
Milt Wagner is sharing these memories from his office at the University of Louisville, where he was recently named the Director of Player Development and Alumni Relations. It’s fitting that Milt shares stories of his son falling in love with the game here, surrounded by memories of his Cardinals’ history. Like the 1986 Championship team, when Milt was a starter, or the list of all-time scorers, where Milt’s name still sits at number six, with 1,834 career points during his four seasons at Louisville, three times making it to the Final Four.
However, Louisville isn’t just the place where Milt played some of his most memorable basketball, it’s where he celebrated the birth of his son as a sophomore with the Cardinals.
From Louisville, Milt went on to the NBA for several seasons, selected by the Dallas Mavericks in the second round of the 1986 NBA Draft with the 35th overall pick. He won an NBA Championship with that same Lakers team that his son Dajuan wanted so badly to join the practice at five years old.
Milt remembers the team shooting with Dajuan after practice, Magic Johnson and other teammates engaging with the son who already wanted to be just like his daddy.
Milt ended up playing 13 years of professional basketball, including for pro teams in Israel, Paris, France, Belgium and Germany.
While he chased his dreams, he encouraged his son every chance he could.
Every summer, Milt would come home to Camden, New Jersey, and he and Dajuan would hit the court. These were the summers in the late 90s when Allen Iverson’s game was the one to mimic, and Dajuan’s game was already being compared to the Hall of Famer’s.
“Everyone called him a stronger Allen Iverson, as far as his game went,” Wagner remembered. “That was when guys liked to dribble like 10 to 20 times to cross you over and all that stuff, we weren’t going to do that. In the NBA, you got to be able to make your move with fewer dribbles.”
So Milt developed a game called two dribbles.
“You’ve got two dribbles to make a move from the foul line.”
They would play ‘two dribbles,’ best out of five, and Milt showed no mercy on his growing son.
“I used to beat him all the time,” Wagner remembered with a smile. “I was 6’5,” and he wasn’t at the height that he became, about 6’2”, so I was able to block his shot here and there. We’re a competitive family, so I wasn’t going to let him beat me when he was young.”
But every summer, Dajuan got closer and closer to beating his dad at the game he’d created. The summer of Dajuan’s junior year at Camden High School, Milt had just retired from overseas basketball, and he returned home for their usual summer of two dribbles only to find that there would be nothing usual about this summer.
“We played our usual one-on-one, two dribbles and he beat me three times in a row. He was talking trash to me, I was so heated,” Milt’s tone still holding the joking shock of a dad realizing it was the next generation’s turn. “But after that, I knew he was ready. That’s all he wanted to do was to be able to beat me.”
“I never played with him again after that. Normally we’d play pickup. We made sure we were on opposite teams, but once he beat me, I said, ‘ok, now we’re on the same team. And I’m not playing you one-on-one anymore. You’re good to go.’”
And Dajuan was. He went from Camden to the University of Memphis, where in 2001, a coach named John Calipari was making a name for himself in the college ranks. In just his second year with the Tigers, Calipari led Dajuan and his team to a 27-9 season and a regular-season championship for Conference USA. Wagner started 35 games, averaging 31.8 minutes, 41% from the field and 31% from three. His game immediately caught the attention of NBA scouts, starting a trend that remains one of the reasons so many high school basketball players seek Calipari’s coaching; he was Calipari’s first one and done. Leaving Memphis after his freshman year as the sixth overall pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2002 NBA Draft.
It's a trend Dajuan’s son could very well follow in less than a year’s time.
Dajuan Wagner Jr., or DJ, has been surrounded by the accomplishments of his father and grandfather for as long as he can remember. Growing up in the same city of Camden, New Jersey, the impact of Milt and Dajuan is impossible to ignore. With 12 boys basketball state championships to their name, ‘The High’ as locals call the school, has won more state championships in boys basketball than any other public school in the state, not to mention they’ve been runners-up 16 times.
Antoine Miller, a former teammate of Dajuan’s, now in charge of the Camden Elite AAU program, told ESPN in November, “There is no Camden High basketball without the Wagners.”
It’s a legacy DJ has been honored to carry on.
“It’s just an honor to be able to step on that court and lace my two sneakers after two greats like that,” said DJ.
An honor, but never a pressure.
“Growing up, [Dajuan] always told me to do what I love and have fun,” DJ fondly stated. “So, he never tried to pressure me, but once he saw that I was taking it seriously and I loved it, that’s when he really started to put his work into it and work me out.”
The conversation is reminiscent of one Milt remembers having with Dajuan when he first started playing. The words are passed down from generation to generation.
“He knew I wanted to be great, so he wanted to help me with that.”
At 17, DJ could already be considered great. ESPN’s top-ranked player of the 2023 class will be playing college basketball for Calipari, now with Kentucky, next season, just like his dad. It wasn’t a decision easily reached, with Milt at Louisville and offers from both schools, but again, Dajuan and Milt let DJ choose his own path.
“It was difficult for me,” DJ said. “But I wouldn’t say it was hard because I had family, regardless, wherever I would’ve gone.”
Since Dajuan became Calipari’s first one-and-done, Cal has coached more than 30 one-and-done draft picks, including the Lakers’ Anthony Davis, Denver’s Jamal Murray, and Sacramento’s impressive duo of Malik Monk and De’Aaron Fox.
With history knocking at his door, DJ keeps his feet planted firmly in the present, just like Milt and Dajuan have always encouraged him to do.
“I’m just a kid who loves to play basketball,” DJ explained. “So I’m not ever really looking into the future of things, I’m just enjoying the moment. My family helps me with that as well, just by supporting me and reminding me to just enjoy everything and keep having fun, not to think about it too much, just to play basketball.”
Just. Play. Basketball.
It’s what the Wagners do.
From pick-up games in Camden, New Jersey, to professional courts around the world. And wherever DJ’s game takes him, he’ll feel the greatness and support of the generations before him in every dribble.
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