Maximilian Kleber (born 29 January 1992) is a German professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for the

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conferenc ...

of the

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(NBA). At 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in), he plays the power forward position.

Early life

Kleber played in the youth ranks of TG Veitshöchheim, SC Heuchelhof and TG Würzburg.

Professional career

Würzburg (2011–2014)

Kleber made his professional debut in Germany's top-flight

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL season ...

during the 2011–12 season, representing the

s.Oliver Baskets s.Oliver, legally ''s.Oliver Bernd Freier GmbH & Co. KG'', is a German fashion company headquartered in Rottendorf that sells apparel, shoes, accessories, jewellery, fragrances and eyewear worldwide. History The company was founded in 1969 ...

, a team based in his hometown

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

. In his first year, he was a role player on the team with an average of 7 minutes a game. In his second season, he grew to become an important player on the team, that averaged 9.9 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. In 2012, he declared for the NBA draft before removing his name from the list. He became auto-eligible for the NBA draft in 2014, but was not picked by any team.

Obradoiro (2014–2015)

In the 2014 off-season, he signed a two-year deal with Spanish club Obradoiro CAB. In the

2014–15 ACB season The 2014–15 ACB season was the 32nd season of the Spanish basketball league, also called Liga Endesa in its sponsored identity. The regular season started on 4 October 2014 and finished on 24 May 2015. The playoffs, joined by the eight first qua ...

, he was named MVP of round 25 after scoring 36 points against Fuenlabrada. Kleber made 33 appearances in the league that year, averaging 11.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

Bayern Munich (2015–2017)

On 1 July 2015, Kleber returned to Germany and signed a two-year deal with

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. In 2015–16, he played 24 Bundesliga games for Bayern, including 17 starts, averaging 8.0 points and 4.9 boards per game. He appeared in 37 games (37 starts) during the 2016–17 Bundesliga season, supplying averages of 9.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game.

Dallas Mavericks (2017–present)

On 13 July 2017, Kleber signed with the

. He made his NBA debut on 21 October 2017 against the

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...

. Kleber moved from end of bench piece to key rotation player in his first few years, increasing his points, rebounds, assists and blocks per game numbers in each of his first three seasons. He was re-signed by the Mavericks on 10 July 2019. On 21 February 2020, Kleber scored a career high 26 points against the

Orlando Magic The Orlando Magic are an American professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. The Magic compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The franchise was establ ...

in a 122–106 victory. In the 2019–20 season, Maxi posted a career high 9.1 points per game. He led the league in games played with 74 games and finished 19th in the league in blocks. Kleber played in his first playoffs that year against the 2nd seed

LA Clippers The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division in the league's Western Conference. The Clipper ...

. Kleber was tasked with guarding

Kawhi Leonard Kawhi Anthony Leonard ( ; born June 29, 1991) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A two-time NBA champion, he is a five-time All-Star with three All-NBA ...

for most of the series. Kleber struggled shooting the ball in the series, averaging 6.7 points per game and making just 5 of his 26 three-point attempts across the six game series. Kleber began the 2020–21 season strong, averaging 7.4 points per game and shooting 47.2% from three-point range in his first 9 games. Kleber would go on to miss the next 10 games however, as he recovered from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Kleber would return to action 2 February 2021 against the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Suns are the only team in t ...

. He logged 17 minutes of game play, grabbing 6 rebounds and scoring 2 points. Kleber and the Mavericks would go on to lose to the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the playoffs in 7 games. On 18 April 2022, during Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs, Kleber scored 25 points and hit eight 3-pointers in a 110–104 win over the Utah Jazz. In the 2022 off-season, he signed a four-year contract extension with the Mavericks.

National team career

Kleber has also played games for the senior

German national team German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

. In 2014, he played for the team during the EuroBasket qualification rounds. Kleber was forced to sit out the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

as he was recovering from an Achilles injury

NBA career statistics

Regular season

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Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, 72 , , 36 , , 16.8 , , .489 , , .313 , , .746 , , 3.3 , , .7 , , .4 , , .7 , , 5.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

, 71 , , 18 , , 21.2 , , .453 , , .353 , , .784 , , 4.6 , , 1.0 , , .5 , , 1.1 , , 6.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

, style="background:#cfecec;", 74* , , 21 , , 25.5 , , .461 , , .373 , , .849 , , 5.2 , , 1.2 , , .3 , , 1.1 , , 9.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

, 50 , , 40 , , 26.8 , , .422 , , .410 , , .919 , , 5.2 , , 1.4 , , .5 , , .7 , , 7.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

, 59 , , 21 , , 24.6 , , .398 , , .325 , , .728 , , 5.9 , , 1.2 , , .5 , , 1.0 , , 7.0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 326 , , 136 , , 22.7 , , .446 , , .359 , , .796 , , 4.8 , , 1.1 , , .4 , , .9 , , 7.1

Playoffs

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, 6 , , 6 , , 33.8 , , .333 , , .192 , , .750 , , 6.5 , , 1.5 , , .3 , , 1.2 , , 6.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

, 7 , , 4 , , 26.7 , , .400 , , .400 , , .714 , , 3.6 , , 1.4 , , .4 , , .0 , , 5.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

, 18 , , 0 , , 25.4 , , .509 , , .436 , , .714 , , 4.6 , , 1.1 , , .2 , , .8 , , 8.7 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 31 , , 10 , , 27.3 , , .451 , , .379 , , .725 , , 4.7 , , 1.3 , , .3 , , .7 , , 7.5