Magic Notes: A Moe Wagner Sighting, Praise from the Warriors, Banchero's Community Award

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Orlando Magic enter the final quarter of the season Sunday when facing the Toronto Raptors.

So, now is a good time for the latest Magic notebook. This week's edition touches on a bit of good news in an otherwise gloomy time at Saturday's practice, goes deeper on the praise shared between the Magic and Golden State Warriors Thursday night, and the full-circle moment tied to Paolo Banchero's Community Enrichment Award on Saturday.

Shall we?

Moe Wagner back on the floor

Saturday's practice at the AdventHealth Training Center – the first since news of Jalen Suggs' indefinite absence with a trochlea cartilage injury came down Friday afternoon – needed a jolt of good vibes.

As local media were permitted to enter the practice courts, the nearest of six baskets featured just that.

Less than two months removed from having reparative surgery on a torn left ACL on January 8, Moe Wagner had a basketball in his hands and – for the first time in the public eye – was back on the court.

The motion was simple: a slight bend into his legs, the left one covered by a black compression sleeve – before taking stationary shots from no more than 15 feet.

Anybody need some good news?

Here’s #Magic center Moe Wagner, less than two months post-op on his torn left ACL, doing some light stationary shooting as we walked into Saturday’s practice at AdventHealth Training Center: pic.twitter.com/t16bRAUgTl
— Mason Williams (@mvsonwilliams) March 1, 2025

But there was motion. For the reeling Magic, it was a sight for sore eyes.

"A ton," Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said when asked how seeing his progression can help his team. "I really do, I think it helps out a ton when you see his energy, his spirit, what he provides to this team, his voice. Then you see him back out on the floor with how hard he's been working. I mean, he's been working his tail off.

"I really think that's so good for our guys to see because they understand who he is and what he means to this team. You can't explain it enough."

Behind the bench, he's been serving as a pseudo assistant coach to remain engaged with the team. Since the first instance on Feb. 8 versus the Spurs, Wagner's booming voice and presence have become a courtside fixture.

It'll be a long while before he competitively steps between the white lines again. But to do so in any capacity, at this point in the year?

Just what the doctor ordered.

Magic, Warriors heap praise on one another

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) is guarded by Orlando Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. (34) in the fourth quarter at Kia Center. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

In the NBA, nothing earns respect from your peers like winning does.

Enduring a season-long gauntlet to hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy at its conclusion is a year-long journey. On its own, it's one of the hardest things to do in sports. But how about replicating it? Then, how about doing it again? And a fourth time. That regard is for inspiring, transcendent all-timers.

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and his other-worldly guard Steph Curry fit that mold.

But what sticks out about Curry to Jamahl Mosley? It starts with his vulnerability, something Mosley believes everyone can take from the living legend.

"I think that's what he's shown so many [people] of the younger generation, and even coaches, like, this is what it takes to make it," Mosley said of Curry. "It's not always going to be perfect, but you have to keep working, make sure you keep your mind right, your body right."

Before he was capable of producing 56-point outbursts like the one Mosley's Magic fell victim to Thursday, few suggested in the early years of Curry that a small guard from Davidson would leave a forever mark on the game of basketball. Because he stuck with his process, he's rightfully regarded as the greatest shooter to ever grace the floor and is an all-time great.

"That's so great for our game and so great for people to understand that it's not always a straight path," Mosley said. "There's work that needs to be put in and you're gonna go through good, bad, tough [times]. But he's been open and honest about all of it through that entire process, and it's a beautiful thing to see. That's why he means so much to our game."

"He seems very no-nonsense," Curry said of Mosley. "A guy you can trust and is trying to bring the best out of you. Coaches with passion and until the final buzzer every night. Orlando has gotten better and a lot of that is because of him. You have a young team you are trying to develop; you trust the voices in front of you trying to get you where you are trying to go."

The Warriors once did that with a young burgeoning core of Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Although Kerr began leading them in 2014, his 11 seasons on the Golden State sidelines have cemented him as one of the NBA's most decorated coaches of all-time.

From Mosley's vantage point, however? The modesty is something to marvel at entirely.

"There's such a level of humility to (coaches) that have won at such a high level, and it's not about them," Mosley said. "That's the one thing that I keep and take away. It's not about them, it's about the players and the game of basketball that has given us all more than we can ever fathom."

"Jamahl's awesome, one of my favorite people in the league," Kerr said. "Just his energy, his enthusiasm, his ability to communicate with everybody in the room. He’s a collaborator, he’s got a great sense of humor. He's everything you want in a coach and having him in [Las] Vegas the last couple of summers was really fun."

Banchero's community award comes full-circle

Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero poses with his Rich and Helen DeVos Community Enrichment Award. | Orlando Magic

Saturday evening, the Magic announced Paolo Banchero as the 2024-25 winner of the Rich and Helen DeVos Community Enrichment Award. The announcement took place at the fifth-annual Orlando Wine Festival and Auction, which is an annual fundraiser benefitting the Orlando Magic Youth Foundation, seekig to assist at-risk youth in Central Florida.

Banchero, a first-time winner of the award, was selected over teammates and finalists Cole Anthony, Wendell Carter Jr. and Franz Wagner.

Aside from contributions to the Magic's holiday community work and multiple youth basketball camps, Banchero is heavily involved with the Boys & Girls Club all around the country. Through a partnership with the organization, he formed Paolo's Starting 5, which provides NBA game night experiences for kids at local chapters at both home and away games.

"It means the world," Banchero said of receiving the honor for his assistance to an organization so near to his heart. "I really did go to Boys and Girls Clubs every day. I spent so much time there, and even though there wasn't an NBA team, I just remember the Seahawks. That was huge for me. Those guys used to give back to the community and come through the Boys and Girls Club all the time, come through my school and all of that. Seeing them up close and personal, talking to them and having just normal conversations, it kind of made me realize at a young age that I could go accomplish my dreams.

"I try to do the same thing nowadays when I give back to kids. When you're a kid, especially in this day and age, your dreams seem so far and sometimes unreachable. But when you can connect with somebody like myself or any athlete, it shows you that you can accomplish those things."

Winning a community service award for giving back to the organization that gave him so much is quite the full-circle moment.

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Moe Wagner back on the floor

Magic, Warriors heap praise on one another

Banchero's community award comes full-circle

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