FORT WORTH – As he bounced around the court at Texas Wesleyan University with a Mavs Academy camp full of kids, Maxi Kleber looked like a new man.
Or, at the least, he looked and felt like himself, which is something he couldn’t say last season.
The Mavericks’ center who will be entering his seventh year in the NBA spent a difficult 2022-23 mostly on the sidelines as he suffered a torn right hamstring on Dec. 13 that required surgery. It was not a season Kleber wants to remember or repeat.
“I’m ready, yeah. That’s what I’ve been preparing for,” Kleber said when asked if he’s ready for an injury-free season. “Last year was obviously frustrating because I was out for so long.
“And even coming back, I had so many issues. I couldn’t move properly. It’s something you don’t want to have to deal with during the season. So it was good to have this summer actually to recover and do some work.”
Count Kleber as the one Maverick who was OK having a longer-than-expected offseason.
“Obviously, when you don’t make the playoffs, the summer is way too long,” he said. “After the season, I went on vacation a little bit, got to see my family for a while, working out the entire time. I got to see my nephew and niece in Wurzburg and Munich.”
It was rest and relaxation mixed with working on his body. But Kleber also was getting prepared for the FIBA World Cup next month.
He will play for the German team that also may have fellow NBA players Dennis Schroder, Franz Wagner, Mo Wagner and Daniel Theis.
The German team will convene later this month and have several exhibitions before heading to Japan, where the World Cup will be staged.
“We start training camp at the end of July,” Kleber said. “We have a lot of good names, good guys. I hope everybody stays healthy and can join, because we’ll have a lot of fun.
“I’m 100 percent excited. I haven’t played in years now because I couldn’t in the summertime because of the (physical) issues I had.”
That’s why it was such a joy for Kleber to be able to move around with young kids at Texas Wesleyan on Wednesday. He also visited Plano’s Mavs Academy camp on Wednesday.
“This is a lot of fun seeing how the kids react,” said Kleber, who went through an hour’s worth of drills and had a question-and-answer session with the campers. “They ask some great questions. You have to think about the answers, sometimes. But it’s just great to see them enjoying the day.”
Kleber, too.
He’s eager to get to the coming season, with the Mavericks expected to have a fruitful crop in free agency signings, which begin on Thursday.
He’s optimistic about what the Mavericks have in store, particularly because there should be some continuity carrying over from last season.
“It looks good,” he said of the potential. “The one thing we have to do obviously is just get it together. Last year, I don’t know if we thought it was going to be easy or not. But it’s not just about the names. You also have to make it work.”
While free agency has been its usual frantic self in the first week of July, Kleber has been enjoying a relatively stress-free summer since he signed his contract extension before last season.
There are certain things that being a free agent just makes more difficult during an offseason.
“It’s a different mindset,” Kleber said. “You don’t have to worry about anything. The workouts I’m doing, I’d be doing anyway, no matter the situation. But it takes a lot of off-court stress away from you.”
The Mavericks are hoping any on-court stress for Kleber is eliminated – at least in the form of physical limitations.
After last season, if anybody deserves a run of health, it’s Kleber.
Homecoming: The Mavs Academy camp in Fort Worth was particularly enjoyable Wednesday for Ben Hunt, who is director of the program.
Hunt an Australian native, got to watch the campers go through their paces and then look up at the NAIA championship banner of 2006, which he helped the Rams win.
“It’s great to come back,” said Hunt, who has been with the Mavericks for nine years directing the youth programs. “There are so many memories here.”
Like the large photos of him in the hallway outside of the gym showing him in action for the 2006 team.
“It’s been awhile,” he said. “But a lot of the same people are here. One of our assistant coaches (Brennen Shingleton) is the head coach now.”
Twitter: @ESefko
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