NBA star voluntarily cancels World Cup: Zoff escalates in the German national basketball team

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It’s the next level of escalation from the Zoff in German basketball: NBA pro Maxi Kleber (31) has faced the consequences after public criticism of himself and his participation in the upcoming World Cup (August 25 to September 10 in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines) cancelled.

What happened? Dennis Schröder (29), captain of the German national basketball team, had publicly denounced that his teammate Kleber had given up last year’s European Championship at home.

“Sorry, Maxi, but you don’t have a game!”

Schröder had criticized the weekend on the “Got Nexxt” podcast that Kleber was only missing because he allegedly wanted to work on his “game”. He did not interfere, as the German Basketball Federation (DBB) demands, and should not take anyone’s place from someone who was there last summer when the DBB squad surprisingly won bronze at the European Championship. Schröder said, among other things: “Sorry, Maxi, but you don’t have a game!”

The criticism caused a great resonance in the German basketball scene. Schröder later accused the media of “twisting things” and that his statements “were not intended to be malicious”. But by then the damage had already been done: the criticized Kleber waived the World Cup.

“It’s best if I don’t play”

It’s not his goal to “destroy the good chemistry in last summer’s team,” the 31-year-old of the Dallas Mavericks told the trade magazine “BIG”: “That’s why I decided it was best for everyone involved if I do not play.”

Kleber said he decided not to go to the European Championship at home because he wanted to fully recover from injury. “The recent unfortunate and inappropriate public statements about me have made it 100 per cent clear that I am not entirely welcome in the national team,” he said. He started this summer with “full intention and motivation” to be at the World Cup. (AFP/dti)

Source : Blick