Luka Doncic (3rd from right) and Maxi Kleber (r.) fight in the Dallas Mavericks jersey to become NBA champions for the first time.
Photo: AFP/Tim Heitman
The Dallas Mavericks are in the NBA finals for the third time – and a Würzburger is there for the third time. The basketball players from North Texas obviously can’t do without it. Since superstar Dirk Nowitzki’s career has been over for a few years, German basketball will be represented in the final series against the Boston Celtics this time by Maxi Kleber, who admittedly plays a much smaller role than Nowitzki in 2006 and 2011 with the Mavericks.
The fact that Kleber’s advance into the fight for the Larry O’Brien Trophy in Germany, which begins this Thursday, is hardly noticed is not only due to the fact that he pales next to the Mavs’ superstars, Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving. Kleber is a defensive specialist who also hits one or two three-point shots per game. But nothing more. The average points average for the injury-prone power forward has now fallen to 4.4. Since his debut in the world’s strongest league in 2017, he has never reached double figures. But being a role player like this is the rule for German NBA players. Dirk Nowitzki was the exception.
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The lack of attention for glue also has to do with last summer. The Würzburger was still nominated for the extended squad of the German national team for the 2023 World Cup, but captain Dennis Schröder criticized this because Kleber did not want to play at the home European Championships the year before. Even if there were reasons for injury, Schröder preferred to reward those who had been part of national coach Gordon Herbert’s three-year project from the start. Kleber didn’t want a fight in the team, withdrew and thus missed Germany’s historic first World Cup title in Manila.
The local media and fans now follow heroes who have different names. Kleber is also missing from the Olympic squad that Herbert presented on Tuesday; he had left early on: “Some things are just not meant to be. “Everyone goes their own way,” he said. Kleber had been a pillar of the national team for a long time. It is questionable whether he will return under a new coach. He would be 33 next summer and his body isn’t the most stable.
Therefore, this NBA Finals series could be Kleber’s last chance for a major title. A lot will depend on Slovenian superstar Luka Dončić. The 25-year-old led the Mavs to the end of the playoffs for the first time in six years. Almost 34 points per game were a league record this season, and the Slovenian also dominated in the semifinals against the Minnesota Timberwolves with an average of more than 30 points. “It was a very, very hard road,” he said afterwards. “But we’re not done yet.”
In Kyrie Irving he finally has a second reliable point collector at his side. Nowitzki was no longer able to fill the job at the end of his career, after which the Latvian Kristaps Porzingis failed in this role. The hobby conspiracy theorist (Kennedy assassination attempt, Holocaust, Covid) Irving, who has become politically quieter but all the louder on the field, is now taking this position. As a world champion, Olympic champion and NBA champion (2016), he also brought experience and the necessary winning mentality to Dallas, which the team had been missing since the 2011 championship.
Porzingis has now landed with the Boston Celtics, who will now face Dallas in the finals. The record champions have been waiting for their 18th title for 16 years. With the starting trio of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Porzingis as well as NBA champion (2021) Jrue Holiday, they finally have the necessary pieces of the puzzle together, which they proved with 64 wins in the main round. The Mavericks only won 50 games, but that doesn’t matter now. The series begins in Boston with the score at 0-0, and he first has to prove whether Porzingis, who recently injured his calf, is fully fit again.
Luka Dončić is also repeatedly said to be lacking fitness. However, it’s not about injuries for him, but about a professional attitude towards sport in general. Dončić’s slight overweight has been visible on his face for years. At the 2022 European Championships, journalists also caught him puffing on a few cigarettes with his teammates in the evening. The Mavs fans cannot hope for a change in character before the upcoming finals: After the semi-final success, a video went viral. Dončić was seen with a celebratory beer in his hand. Mavericks vice president Michael Finley, a teammate in Nowitzki’s first NBA years, took the can away from the Slovenian. Dončić did not react happily. If he still brings the title to Dallas in the end, the exceptional player will certainly be forgiven.
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