DJ Wagner, Camden HS pulled from district tournament following in-game brawl

Kentucky men’s basketball signee DJ Wagner was briefly involved in a brawl during a district tournament game that resulted in his team’s removal from the upcoming state tournament.

The incident happened in the midst of the Camden County Boys Basketball Tournament championship game on Thursday night between Camden High School and Camden Eastside High School. During the second quarter, video from the scene shows a Camden player hitting a Camden Eastside player with an elbow around the head, which quickly escalated into a lengthy on-court brawl that saw Wagner charge after a player from Camden Eastside before being removed from the situation.

The game was immediately suspended and no one was reported to have suffered serious injuries. Camden Superintendent of Public Schools, Katrina McCombs, immediately pulled both schools from the upcoming NJSIAA Tournament.

Wagner, a five-star class of 2023 combo guard, is committed to play his college basketball at Kentucky, as is his Camden High School teammate, five-star class of 2023 center Aaron Bradshaw, who can be seen in the videos below holding Wagner back during the initial altercation.

Here is a full video of DJ Wagner and Camden’s (grey) physical altercation tonight against Eastside (red). pic.twitter.com/wUuD0PaHe3

— Tristan Pharis (@TristanUda) February 17, 2023

Camden High breaks out in brawl vs eastside. #djwagner #camden pic.twitter.com/uVV4CEhB4o

— Rufus Jones (@TheRufusJones) February 17, 2023

The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association approved the Camden school district’s decision to remove both teams from the state tournament, which is set to begin on Feb. 20.

“The NJSIAA welcomes the decision by the Camden City School District to remove both its teams — Camden High School and Camden Eastside High School — from the boys basketball state tournament,” a statement released on Friday said. “This decision, which follows an altercation involving both teams, is consistent with established NJSIAA rules that would have eliminated the two teams from tournament play. Moving forward, Lindenwold, which was set to face Camden, and Clearview, scheduled to play Eastside, will both receive forfeit wins and advance to the next round.” 

Camden High School (23-2) is considered one of the top overall programs in the entire country, ranking No. 7 in ESPN’s latest SCNext Top 25. Led by future Wildcats Wagner and Bradshaw, Camden was looking to make a run for the NJSIAA state championship after coming up short in the title game a year ago, but the school will no longer have that opportunity following Thursday’s incident.

As a result, the high school careers of both Wagner (who recently surpassed the 2,000-point mark for his high school career) and Bradshaw have come to an abrupt end. Camden led 30-17 at the time of the game’s suspension with Wagner already up to 16 points.