Moe Wagner
Appearances
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Moe Wagner
It's grown. Definitely soccer or football. We call it football. Sorry, Americans. The main sport. But the basketball community has grown. Obviously, with Dirk Nowitzki, we have a huge, huge representative. And basketball is getting bigger.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Moe Wagner
Actually, funny story. So yeah, I played soccer. I loved soccer. I loved being outside, getting dirty in the grass and playing with my friends. And then at some point, my mom got so sick of waiting outside in the rain watching me play all day that she forced me, more or less, to try out a gym sport. And because I was very tall, it was either handball or basketball.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Moe Wagner
My dad did handball, so I chose basketball. A little rebellion. Exactly. Yeah.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Moe Wagner
Michigan was kind of like, now, obviously, Michigan may go blue forever, but back then, it was kind of like... Back then, it was just kind of the only school that offered me a scholarship, so I was like, sure. You're back. Um... I'll do that.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Moe Wagner
But I will say both my parents went to medical school, are doctors, so going to school was kind of a thing in my family, and I didn't want to be the outlier on that end, at least act like I cared. And... I didn't want to go to medical school, that's for sure. And also, like I said, again, it's hard to get on the radar.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Moe Wagner
So I tried to play on ESPN and have people see me to go to the NBA, and that was possible at Michigan and less possible in Germany. So that was kind of like a surefire answer. Yeah, absolutely.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Moe Wagner
Exactly. I hate to admit that to my mom nowadays, but I really just went to the University of Michigan to go to the NBA.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Moe Wagner
Yeah, kind of. Like, he owes me everything, honestly. I appreciate you setting that up for me. I kind of turned from younger brother into my landlord within four years, so that's awesome. But no, obviously an amazing experience. This is a crazy, crazy lifestyle we live and to get to share that with your family and at that level is pretty cool.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Moe Wagner
Yeah, like he surpassed me in about everything in life except for that little detail. I try to rub that in every day. I bet you do.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Moe Wagner
Exactly. We got a full court upstairs and a full court downstairs. No, like, yeah, he bought a house. I live upstairs. He lives downstairs. So we have some separate rooms. We don't bunk bed or do anything like that. There should be privacy allowed on the road as well, so we don't share hotel rooms or anything like that. We are still two individual grown men.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Moe Wagner
We live together, do the same thing on the same team. The cool thing is our mom gets to be around all year, so that's awesome.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Moe Wagner
I don't think he understood what we were saying, but I definitely, I mean, he's obviously from Slovenia, so he has some experience with European language, and he picked up on that pretty quickly. But he definitely didn't know what we were saying. It's pretty cool, because Franz and I, obviously, we have some opinions about our teammates or opponent teams. So we utilize our native tongue. Really?
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Moe Wagner
Well, it's the best. They can't be mad at you if they don't know what you're saying. That's true. Let's just say we're happy that there's no German ref in the movie. I understand.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Moe Wagner
That is a very petty way of doing that. I would go see. There you go, yeah. He went right for that, and that's what he did.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Moe Wagner
That feels, yeah, it feels innocent and smart at the same time.