It was the summer fairy tale of 2022. Our basketball players around NBA star Dennis Schröder (29/Toronto Raptors) sensationally won bronze at the European Championships at home. The first medal in 17 years!
Now it should be continued at the World Cup in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines (25 August to 10 September). “We want a medal,” said national coach Gordon Herbert (64). On July 31, the 18-man squad will start preparing in Bonn.
But now there’s Zoff!
DBB captain Schröder takes apart teammate Maxi Kleber (31) in the podcast “Got Nexxt” from basketball insider André “Dre” Voigt.
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Reason: A year ago, the NBA professional from the Dallas Mavericks canceled the national coach – now he is in the squad. Schröder obviously doesn’t like that at all: “Maxi wasn’t there last year. If you haven’t committed yourself – that was actually the message for all of us – then you won’t be there next year either.”
At the time, Kleber had injured his knee. But his reasoning at the time for the rejection still pisses Schröder off: “If he says I’m going to sign my contract this summer and I want to be with the team so I can get even more money, then I understand that. But if you do.” say to Gordon Herbert: ‘I’m Maxi and I want to train ball handling and work on my game in the summer…'”
Then Schröder becomes drastic: “Maxi, sorry, but you don’t have a game. You throw in the corner, you defend. You are a pick and roll player. You’re not a Carmelo Anthony (former New York Knicks superstar, ed.). You don’t need to work on your game. The older you get, you see what your strengths are. And you try to maximize it so badly that you can play NBA for as long as possible.”
Kleber has been in Dallas since 2017 and extended his contract there last September until 2026. Nevertheless, Schröder still resents the cancellation of the European Championship: “For me it’s like this: Well, Maxi, work on your game, you can’t play nation for that ?!? That bothered me a bit, to be honest. I just didn’t feel that. I’m always a straight, straight guy.”
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Especially because in 2022 players like Moritz Wagner (26/Orlando Magic) and Isaac Bonga (23/Bayern Munich) also traveled to the DBB team to support their colleagues. Schröder: “Isaac Bonga, Mo Wagner, the boys were there anyway. If Maxi had said, hey, I’m injured, but I’ll come, it’s different again. Then I would say it was there anyway. We have to make sure that it stays fair anyway.”
Because Herbert still has to cut his squad down to twelve men before the start of the World Cup, Schröder fears that team players like Hamburg’s Jonas Wohlfahrt-Bottermann (33) will have to make way for Kleber: “It’s about this commitment that it’s an honor for to play the national team. We made this sexier last year. And now everyone is at the start again. We have to make sure that it stays fair anyway.”
2023-07-16 10:20:42
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