After NBA star Dennis Schröder criticized national team colleague Maximilian Kleber, there was a discussion between the two basketball professionals.
“Everything has been clarified internally,” said the German Basketball Federation in a brief statement.
Kleber had announced that he would not take part in the World Cup in Asia next month, also due to the violent statements made by team captain Schröder.
“Ultimately, Maximilian Kleber decided as he expressed it in his statement. There is nothing to add to that,” said the DBB on its own website: “We can’t change anything about the situation now, but of course we look positively forward.”
There are no words of regret about the case to be read in the rather cool message. Instead, the two paragraphs state that the 29-year-old Schröder will remain captain of the team.
Basketball: Dennis Schröder criticized Maximilian Kleber
“We will start the training camp in Bonn on July 31, 2023 with a highly motivated team led by team captain Dennis Schröder and then we are very much looking forward to the friendly phase in Bonn, Berlin, Hamburg and Abu Dhabi as well as to the World Cup 2023 in Okinawa/ Japan,” it said.
The recent “unfortunate and inappropriate public statements” about him made it 100 percent clear that he was not fully welcome in the national team,” Kleber was quoted as saying in a statement by the Main-Post newspaper. “It’s not my goal , destroying the good chemistry in last summer’s team. I also don’t want to become a source of distraction. So I’ve decided it’s best for everyone involved if I don’t play.”
Kleber was reacting to criticism from Schröder, who expressed his displeasure with Kleber’s nomination in the “Got Nexxt” podcast because he had canceled for the European Championships the previous year.
Schröder criticized the reasoning behind the cancellation of the Dallas Mavericks head coach Gordon Herbert by Kleber, who was suffering from knee problems at the time.