Orlando center Moritz Wagner will miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL in his left knee, that news coming to the injury-riddled Magic one day after they pulled off one of the more improbable wins in franchise history.
Wagner underwent an MRI exam on Sunday to confirm the tear. He will require surgery and then a recovery period of several months.
He was injured in Orlando's 121-114 win over the Miami Heat on Saturday night, a game where the Magic rallied from a 22-point deficit to start the fourth quarter and tied a franchise record by erasing what at one point was a 25-point hole.
It is the latest and most severe addition to a long list of significant injuries for the Magic this season. Orlando has been without All-Star forward Paolo Banchero for the last 25 of its 30 games because of a torn oblique, and forward Franz Wagner — Moritz's brother, someone who was well on his way to an All-Star nod this season before getting hurt — has missed the last five games with a torn oblique as well.
Banchero is nearing a return. Franz Wagner will likely miss at least a few more weeks. The Magic have survived it all, getting off to an 18-12 start that has them fourth in the Eastern Conference.
Moritz Wagner was hurt with 2:33 left in the first quarter of Saturday's game against the Heat, on a non-contact play. He dribbled into the lane, attempted to stop about 8 feet from the basket and his left knee gave out. He immediately fell, grabbing the front of the knee and writhing for a few moments.
The Magic wound up trailing by 25 in the second quarter, were still down by 22 going into the fourth and pulled off a huge rally — outscoring Miami 37-8 in the fourth for a 121-114 win. It matched the seventh-largest comeback to start a fourth quarter in NBA history, and came with the Magic playing without Banchero, both Wagner brothers, point guard Jalen Suggs (ankle) and backup guard Gary Harris (hamstring).
“We talked about making sure that we’re lifting our brother up in Moe Wagner. That was a big portion of it,” an emotional Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said after the game. “But again, it’s a group that just continues to fight and they continue to scrap. They continue to go no matter what’s happening.”
Moritz Wagner was one of two players — point guard Anthony Black is the other — to have appeared in all 30 of Orlando's games to this point this season. He was averaging a career-best 12.9 points this season, along with 4.9 rebounds in about 19 minutes per game.
Moritz Wagner has also represented Germany in the past two Olympics at Tokyo and Paris, and — along with his brother — helped his homeland win the Basketball World Cup at Manila in 2023.
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Orlando Magic center Moritz Wagner (21) evades New York Knicks guard Pacome Dadiet, left, during the second half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Alan Youngblood)
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday hosted Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, in a rare visit to the Kremlin by an EU leader since Moscow's all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Fico arrived in Russia on a “working visit” and met with Putin one-on-one on Sunday evening, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s RIA agency. According to Peskov, the talks were expected to focus on “the international situation” and Russian natural gas deliveries.
Russian natural gas still flows to some European countries, including Slovakia, through Ukraine under a five-year agreement signed before the war that is due to expire at the end of this year. At a summit in Brussels on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told EU leaders that Kyiv has no intention of renewing the deal, something Fico insisted will harm his country's interests.
Slovakia last month signed a short-term pilot contract to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan, as it prepares for a possible halt to Russian supplies through Ukraine. Earlier this year, it struck a deal to import U.S. liquefied natural gas through a pipeline from Poland.
The country can also receive gas through Austrian, Hungarian and Czech networks, enabling imports from Germany among other potential suppliers.
Visits and phone calls from European leaders to Putin have been rare since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine, although Hungary’s PM Viktor Orbán visited Russia in July, and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer met with the Russian leader just weeks into the full-scale war. Both trips drew condemnation from Kyiv and European leaders.
Orbán, widely seen as having the warmest relations with Putin among EU leaders, has routinely blocked, delayed or watered down EU efforts to assist Kyiv and impose sanctions on Moscow for its actions in Ukraine. He has long argued for a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine but without outlining what that might mean for the country’s territorial integrity or future security.
Fico’s views on Russia’s war on Ukraine differ sharply from most other European leaders. The Slovakian PM returned to power last year after his leftist party Smer (Direction) won parliamentary elections on a pro-Russia and anti-American platform. Since then, he has ended his country’s military aid for Ukraine, hit out at EU sanctions on Russia, and vowed to block Ukraine from joining NATO.
Fico has also been a rare senior EU politician to appear on Russian state TV following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In an interview with the Rossiya-1 channel in October, he contended the West has “prolonged the war” by supporting Ukraine, adding that sanctions against Russia were ineffective. He declared that he was ready to negotiate with Putin.
He also vowed to attend a military parade in Moscow next May that will mark the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II. The Kremlin has used the annual “Victory Day” celebrations to tout its battlefield prowess, and Putin hailed Russian troops fighting in Ukraine as “heroes” at this year’s event.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico shake hands during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, pool, File)
