Orlando Magic’s Wendell Carter Jr. On Why They Can Beat ‘Anybody’ In The Playoffs

Wendell Carter Jr. knows the key for the Orlando Magic to get over the hump is being healthy entering the playoffs.

The Magic are coming off of one of their biggest wins of the season against the Detroit Pistons, a game in which Carter scored 12 points in 18 minutes before exiting with a neck sprain.

Carter — who said the injury is nothing major — believes the key for the Magic to make a deep playoff run is the availability of all their players, which includes stars such as Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner.

“I think for us, the first thing is health,” said Carter in a one-on-one interview. “We’ve been dealing with a lot of health problems throughout this year, honestly, since I’ve been in Orlando, so I think everybody getting healthy at the right time is important. Everyone is just peaking, our team is just peaking at the right time. I think that’s the most important. You go through lulls throughout the year, 82-game season.

“You’re not going to be perfect for all 82 but it’s important that you know towards this time of the year that everyone’s in a good mind space,” Carter continued. “Body’s feeling good, mind is feeling good, Spirit is in a good spot. I think that now that I’ve been in the league for eight years, I think that’ when you see in the best teams in this league, the guys who make those runs late in the year, they’re peaking at the perfect time when other teams might not be.”

The Magic have not lived up to expectations this season, entering Tuesday night’s play ranked ninth in the Eastern Conference with a 43-36 record. However, they’re starting to hit a bit of a stride, as they’re riding a three-game winning streak. That includes Carter’s best performance of the season, which saw the 6-foot-10 center score a season-high 28 points in a win over the Dallas Mavericks.

Orlando has continued to deal with health issues this season, with Banchero remaining relatively healthy this season — he’s appeared in 69 of 79 games — but Wagner appearing in just 31 of those games.

With that being said, the Magic are just 11-10 this season when Banchero and Wagner are both in the lineup. Orlando is looking to escape the first round for the first time since the 2009-10 season.

“100% we’ve seen it over these last couple of years,” said Carter. “We’ve had so many different lineups from the starting year to now. We probably had the least amount of minutes as a starting five unit, or one of the least in the league. It’s tough. The chemistry is very hard to establish when you don’t have anyone out there. You establish one part of a chemistry, and then another guy comes into the fold, and you gotta kind of reestablish yourself. It’s tough. But I think now that everyone is sort of healthy, I think we’re in a good spot for sure.”

The Magic are 6-9 against the top four teams in the East — Pistons, Boston Celtics, New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers — including a win over the Cavaliers since they acquired Harden. That’s not that bad of a record considering Orlando is currently ninth in the East.

“I’m taking the Orlando Magic over anybody in the league,” said Carter when asked if Orlando can beat the elite teams of the East in the playoffs. “So yeah, I think we can handle anyone.”

Wendell Carter Jr. On His Business Investments And Wanting To Own a WNBA Team

While Carter is obviously known for being the starting center of the Magic, the 26-year-old center is making moves off of it as he continues to build his business portfolio.

The eighth-year veteran has invested his NBA earnings into largely technology, wellness and performance-focused brands. That includes brands such as NoBull — the athletic wear-based brand which Tom Brady is involved with — SpaceX, Recovery 180, Antrhropic, Therabody, Signos, ZenWTR and Clairmont. Carter said there’s not a specific area he leans towards as long as it aligns with his values.

Carter has earned nearly $72 million over his eight years in the NBA and is currently in the midst of a three-year, $59 million deal with the Magic.

“Probably like my third or fourth year in the league, right around the time of my second contract,” said Carter when he started investing heavily off the court. “I had to start finding ways to make this money last for my kids, and my kids kids. That’s when I really started to take it kind of serious, not necessarily just let someone invest for me, but I want to learn it myself.

“At some point I can really just spearhead to be able to sit in on meetings knowing a good deal versus a bad deal,” Carter continued. “That’s when I started to kind of
take lead in that aspect of my life.”

Carter – who is aided by Ecos Group, a full-service management firm that represents major athlete names such as Patrick Surtain II, Courtland Sutton and Nik Bonitto – hammered home that he doesn’t have a particular style when it comes to his business investments.

“It’s a good question, I would say my style honestly is what makes the most sense,” said Carter. “Honestly, I don’t really have a specific lane that I kind of go down if it’s completely against what I stand for — whatever the case may be – I will listen to it. But for the most part, I’m pretty open to everything. I’m pretty open to listening, if it makes sense. I like later stages, I like early stage two, but I like the later stages where I’ve seen kind of the track work, track record is seeing what they’ve done in the past.

“I got a great team, my financial team when everything comes to the table, we can all sit down and be able to kind of talk about it, see if it makes sense, see how risky it is, and if I’m able to read and take risks at that moment in time,” Carter continued. “Those are kind of the big things to me.”

While he won’t say that he has a certain style or a area that he leans in on, one of the reasons Carter is investing in Anthropic – which is an AI safety and research company – is because everything in the world is based on technology these days, especially with AI advancing at a rapid rate.

“Just what’s going on in the world now,” said Carter. “Technology has taken over. I’ve kind of started just to follow that trend. Another thing that actually just made me remember I’m also in is Anthropic, AI is basically taking over right now. I saw this opportunity just to kind of jump in on that. And then wellness, that goes hand in hand with basketball that’s around us each and every day. I see what works, I see what doesn’t work. A guy like Recover 180’s Lance Collins, you know his track record, what he’s done in the past. That’s a guy that I trust for sure.”

Carter said he has not had the opportunity to talk to the likes of NBA veterans LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant – all of whom are among the richest athletes in the world who have excelled in the business world – but he would definitely like to pick their brains to advance his knowledge.

“What has worked and what hasn’t worked over the years,” said Carter on what he would ask them. “Probably keep it pretty bland and kind of let them spearhead that conversation, because they experienced a lot more than I have. They’ve made a lot more money than I have in terms of that space. I will kind of allow them spearhead that conversation for sure, just what has worked, what hasn’t worked, what do you think is going to work in the future, what do you don’t think is going to work? And kind of let them spearhead that for sure.”

Carter named former Chicago Bulls teammate Thaddeus Young as a major influence on him when it comes to his business investments. The veteran center said one of the biggest reasons stars such as James, Curry and Durant have been able to succeed is their ability to use their “platform.”

“They’ve done a fantastic job of is just using their platform,” said Carter. “Those are some of the best basketball players in the world. They’ve used their platform to get indoors that a lot of other people may not be able to get into. They’ve used that and continue to learn what are good investments and what aren’t good investments. Taking time out of their day to rub shoulders with guys that are in those spaces that can help them. I think that’s probably the biggest thing that I think that they’ve done over the years, and then now they’ve built their own team to where I’m sure that they got their own investment guys and whatever the case may be that kind of help them out.”

The Magic center doesn’t have a concrete objective when it comes to his long-term business plan, but he said owning a sports team – specifically a WNBA one – would be pretty “dope.”

“The long-term business objective, I don’t know if I have one,” said Carter. “Of course I want to be in and be part owner of many companies, as many companies as I possibly can. I guess I would say as I’m looking ahead and seeing how the lay of the land is kind of forming, I would say probably owning a sports team. I think that might be one of my biggest goals right now.”

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

Orlando Magic’s Wendell Carter Jr. On Why They Can Beat ‘Anybody’ In The Playoffs

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