The FIBA World Cup is over.
Germany has taken home the gold medal and Franz Wagner, Moe Wagner and assistant coach Bret Brielmaier — along with the other Magic staffers who tagged along for Germany’s World Cup run (there are quite a few actually) — will return to the AdventHealth Training Facility with championship glows upon them.
The U.S. is coming home without a medal after a fourth-place finish following an overtime loss to Canada in the third-place game.
They all accomplished the goal of qualifying for next year’s Olympics, although the defeat seems to promise some bigger-name stars will sign up for Paris and push Paolo Banchero out of the Olympic pool for this tournament.
Banchero probably put his outlook best earlier on Monday:
and now back to our regularly scheduled programming @OrlandoMagic 🥷🏽🏁
— Paolo Banchero (@Pp_doesit) September 11, 2023
Training camp is indeed now three weeks away — training camp opens Oct. 3 with the team’s first practice with media day the day before (and a good 35th-anniversary season tip-off event scheduled for Friday). The season is right around the corner.
It is one last breath after the World Cup is over before the season gets going.
The FIBA World Cup is over and we are looking ahead to the start of training camp. What will the Orlando Magic’s players bring back with them for the 2024 season?
The best part of the World Cup is that we did get a chance to see some of the Magic’s key players right before training camp began. It did serve as something of a progress check for the players who participated.
Now that the tournament is completely over, we can try to make some conclusions about what we saw and what it means for the season ahead.
Without a doubt, the contexts are different. Banchero was playing a supporting role off the bench. Getting back to “regularly scheduled programming” will undoubtedly mean taking more shots. Wagner could get featured even more with the Magic than he was with Germany.
At the very least, the World Cup gave a lot of these players confidence heading into the season. And that is all the team ever wanted from it — aside from experience for their young players in pressure games.
The World Cup was largely a success for all five of the Magic players who participated for both themselves and for their teams.
Now that we are looking ahead to training camp, here are the takeaways from the World Cup.