Wagner returns to NBA
By CELESTE E. WHITTAKER
Courier-Post Staff
Dajuan Wagner has made the long, arduous climb back to the NBA.
The former Camden High star signed a two-year contract believed to be worth about $1.6 million with the Golden State Warriors on Friday.
The 6-foot-2, 196-pound Wagner, who had his colon removed in October due to severe colitis, played three seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but was out of the league last season.
Wagner was the sixth overall pick of the 2002 NBA Draft after playing for one season at the University of Memphis, but played in just 102 of 246 possible games in his three seasons with the Cavs, missing most of them due to injury or illness. He averaged 9.4 points and 1.9 assists during his time with the Cavs.
Wagner, who could not be reached for a comment, caught the red-eye flight back from his workout with the Warriors, arriving in Philadelphia on Friday morning. He'll return there soon for training camp, which begins the first week of October.
"I'm thrilled for him and for his family," said Wagner's agent Leon Rose, a Cherry Hill native. "This has been just a credit to his work ethic, his determination and desire to get himself back physically to be able to play at the NBA level. It was a long haul for him.
"I believe that this negative experience has made him stronger and will be something that will be beneficial to him in the long run. The credit all has to be given to Juanny for his hard work and dedication. He took a big hit and he got back up and that's what it's all about."
The 23-year-old Wagner, who once scored 100 points in a high school game at Camden, has bounced back in a big way.
He battled colitis -- inflammation of the colon or large intestine -- and had surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York on Oct. 25 where Dr. Joel Bauer removed his colon. The colon was essentially replaced when they removed the lining out of his rectum and created an inward pouch or reservoir out of the last part of his small intestine.
Wagner has worked and trained extremely hard at the Cherry Hill Health & Racquet Club since April, gaining more than 30 pounds during that span under the watch of former Bishop Eustace High School rival Omar Wellington, the president and CEO of Nexxt Level Sports.
"I'm thankful for the support and training that he received from Omar Wellington," Rose said. "He did a great job with Juanny. Together they made a heck of a team."
He looked like the Wagner of old playing in summer leagues at the CHHRC and at Drexel University. He scored 80 points in a league game at the racquet club, going against NBA players such as Memphis Grizzlies forward Hakim Warrick, Los Angeles Clippers guard Cuttino Mobley and NBA journeyman Rick Brunson.
"My confidence never left me," Wagner said last month. ". . .When you've been away from something you've been doing so long, your whole life, and you can't do it, it makes you hungry. I'm real hungry."
Scoring has always seemingly come easy to him. Wagner, New Jersey's all-time leading scorer in boys' basketball history with 3,462 points, averaged 21.2 points as a freshman at Memphis, leading the Tigers to the postseason NIT title.
The Warriors play the Sixers at the Wachovia Center on Feb. 2, just two days before Wagner's 24th birthday.
Reach Celeste E. Whittaker at
cwhittaker@courierpostonline.com
Published: September 23. 2006 3:10AM
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Dajuan Wagner is Officially A Golden State Warrior
lmao @ this harsh shit
