Dajuan Wagner

[Diaw]

i think there was a thread talking about him, but i coundt find it ...

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/15195609.htm

he seems to be back in good shape ... 132pts in 2 games ... 15 threes (i know the competition level must be kinda weak but :eek:) ... maybe we'll see him in the league this year ...

[robbie380]

i hope he gets back into NBA form. it sucks for basketball when you lose talented players to injury.

[aussie rocket]

I too hope he bounces back with another league team - we don't need him though of course.

Got about 4 too many guards at the moment.

[Van Gundier]

Colon replacement?! Sounds painful. Good luck to him hooking up with a team, though.

[tierre_brown]

He sounds like he could be the 2006-2007 version of Eddie House on the Suns: instant offense but no D. I've always liked his game and thought he'd be a stud in Cleveland, though.

[verse]

i've been a huge juanny wagner fan since memphis. i sincerely hope he makes it back to the L and (hopefully) gets picked up by the rox. dude is a flat out scoring machine.

[thacabbage]

Only 30% of colitis patients develop a severe enough case to where they need to have the colon completely removed. The fact that this guy was the player he was at Memphis with this disease is beyond mind boggling. There are people that can't even leave their house due to the same affliction.

[ak47]

Wasnt Dajuan Wagner a lottery pick?

[superden]

I really hope Wagner does well and becomes a star in this league. I only say this because I have his autograph rookie card... hahaha.

[Good Times]

Wasn't he the one that scored 100pts in a high school game. There was alot of hype around him before the NBA, was predicted to be a sure-thing 20ppg player.

[high5]

Wasn't he the one that scored 100pts in a high school game.
Yep.

He was known as 'the Messiah' back then.

[aussie rocket]

I really hope Wagner does well and becomes a star in this league. I only say this because I have his autograph rookie card... hahaha.


People still collect cards?

I have a stash somewhere...

[saleem]

It would be good to see him get healthy and succeed in the NBA.

[AggieRocketFan96]

Carroll Dawson,
Pick this guy up now!!!

[KingCheetah]

Best of luck to this kid -- he went through hell.

[VesceySux]

I had a chance to meet Wagner at the NBA Rookie Shoot a few years back. He showed up late to the event, looked totally stoned, and acted like a spoiled, pompous prick the entire day, unwilling to do anything we wanted. (The other 30+ NBA rookies were extremely cooperative and professional. Even Jay Williams, who also showed up late with a hangover after partying hard in NYC the night before.) "The Messiah," my ass. Now, has he fallen on hard times and mellowed out since his rookie year? Possible. Is he worthy of sympathy? Maybe. But he's not getting it from me.

[jmwilliamson]

I had a chance to meet Wagner at the NBA Rookie Shoot a few years back. He showed up late to the event, looked totally stoned, and acted like a spoiled, pompous prick the entire day, unwilling to do anything we wanted. (The other 30+ NBA rookies were extremely cooperative and professional. Even Jay Williams, who also showed up late with a hangover after partying hard in NYC the night before.) "The Messiah," my ass. Now, has he fallen on hard times and mellowed out since his rookie year? Possible. Is he worthy of sympathy? Maybe. But he's not getting it from me.

I'm not going to say that your view of his behavior was wrong. I have no way of knowing that. However, I have Crohn's Disease. It's essentially the same disease as Collitis except it's in the intestines rather than the colon. For decades they were believed to be the same disease, so they're really that similar.

Why is that important? Because I've been through much of what this kid went through. The article stated his problems began in the 12th grade. I believe he played one season of college ball then went to the NBA. You met Dajuan Wagner two years into his Collitis problems becoming serious. He had still not been diagnosed. He was probably embarrassed to tell people the symptoms. Many people are.

Within six months of when I first saw symptoms I saw more blood than stool when I went to the bathroom. I would hold it for days (when I could manage to do so) because the pain was so excruciating when I did go to the bathroom. I had an anal fissure. The doctor described it as being like a paper cut in the anus. He said it was one of the most excruciating pains a person could know. Because the pain was so severe, I naturally strained each time I went to the bathroom to try to get it over as quickly as possible. This resulted in hemmoroids. I would also be awake for days at a time until I literally passed out from exhaustion, because the pain was so severe I couldn't sleep. I would then get maybe two or three hours of sleep before the pain would wake me up. I usually woke up crying. My appetite was so far gone that I literally had difficulty swallowing water. It nauseated me. I lost forty pounds. Once I was diagnosed, I improved. The medication helped. I became somewhat more functional, but for the next five years I was confined to my bed more often than I was up and about - and when I say up and about, I was still unable to do things like go to school or work, I was just strong enough that I could manage to go out for a few hours at a time to get out of my apartment - and even then it had to be places I could sit down for most of the time I was there.

It's very possible that Dajuan Wagner (and even likely considering the extreme surgery that was required) was experiencing this kind of pain when you met him. It then stands to reason he wouldn't want to be very physically active, he'd be incredibly irritable and he may well have been self-medicated on marijuana or pain pills or whatever else he could get his hands on to stop that god awful pain. I know I certainly went through similar situations minus the self medication. I've been sober the entirety of my life and it didn't even occur to me to turn to drugs or alcohol, though you better believe when they prescribed me vicodin I was popping one or two every few hours.

I can't help but relate to this kid, and that being the case, I can't help but hope he succeeds. I'll definitely be rooting for him. If he makes it back to the league I'll be watching closely.

As a side note, after about five years and multiple surgeries, I became a fully functioning human being again. I still have bad days every now and again, but I've been in school for a few years and I'm doing well. I still can't imagine doing what he's doing though. It's very inspiring to me.

[JayZ750]

I had a chance to meet Wagner at the NBA Rookie Shoot a few years back. He showed up late to the event, looked totally stoned, and acted like a spoiled, pompous prick the entire day, unwilling to do anything we wanted. (The other 30+ NBA rookies were extremely cooperative and professional. Even Jay Williams, who also showed up late with a hangover after partying hard in NYC the night before.) "The Messiah," my ass. Now, has he fallen on hard times and mellowed out since his rookie year? Possible. Is he worthy of sympathy? Maybe. But he's not getting it from me.

Shocking. Someone who garnered the nickname, "The Messiah" before turning 20 ends up being a pompous ass!

Thanks for the personal story...there's nothing I hate more than athletes who act like that.

[pgabriel]

Just because the dude's an asshole, which I don't doubt, that's no reason not to have sympathy for him because he didn't give you an interview.


anytime I hear the "I hate him because he didn't give me an interview" complaint I hate the media more. the media is just as whinny.

sorry, that's just my opinion.

edit: and I'm not trying to criticize you personally, that is just something that always has bothered me about the sports media.