Mavs Maxi Kleber Explains 'Call Me' & Talks NBA Hiatus

Dallas Mavericks German Big Man Maxi Kleber Explains His 'Call Me' Hand Signal and Talks NBA Hiatus

DALLAS - Maxi Kleber finds himself, like most of the rest of us, quarantined ... and as good-natured as he is, maybe just a bit bothered  by it. After all, like most of the rest of us, he was looking forward to the NBA Playoffs, too - though as a Dallas Mavericks key rotation player, he was actually going to participate in them.

Furthermore, he was going to have family in town from Germany, so his quarantine - probably unlike most of the rest of us - means he's 5,000 miles away from his most beloved human contacts.

"It is definitely not what I thought was going to happen,'' Kleber tells 105.3 The Fan's "K&C Masterpiece.'' "My brother was going to come, my other brother and my mom. I was expecting a lot of visits from my family right before the Playoffs. Now everything has changed. I’m at home by myself. I just try to face-time them ever day and talk to them. 

"Obviously, I would have loved from them to be here.''

Kleber is in Dallas, of course, observing the rules of COVID-19. How does his daily regimen unfold?

"Yeah, I want to follow the rules,'' says Kleber, 28. "I want to get this over with and I hope everybody does, too. I work out in the mornings. I try to do a lot of stuff I didn’t do enough of; Playing the guitar, reading some books, talking to my family. If the weather starts to get better and warmer, I can sit on my balcony and get some sun.''

He says he's learning to play "One Man Band’ by Old Dominion ... It’s country pop so not everybody listens to that stuff.'' And of course he's paying attention to the news.

"Obviously I read all the stuff on the internet and how they want sports to come back,'' says Kleber, who was averaging 9.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game for seventh-in-the-West Dallas when the NBA went on hiatus. "Then I also talk to my teammates. We don’t know that much more than other people. We only had one meeting with the players association. They talked through the options but there is no answer yet so, all we can do is guess too. So that’s why I don’t try to read too much into it because we don’t know. Until there is a decision, I won’t know. 

"I keep up, I see that the curve is getting better and more people healed.''

Kleber says he's working out daily and he laughs at the "confusion'' over a recent social-media "post-workout snack'' that looked delicious but something less than healthy.

"I think a lot of people got confused,'' Maxi says. "They thought it was ice cream and whip cream and all that. No, it was plain greek yogurt, nuts and chocolate sauce because I wanted to have something sweet. It was actually not that bad, it looked worse than it was. I’m trying to stay in shape.''

He is also trying to stay in contact with not only the aforementioned family, but Mavs teammates and coaches, too. Good thing, then, that he's got his semi-famous "Call Me'' hand signal down-pat, right?

Oh, and by the way - Maxi has generally been reluctant to share the details of his "Call Me'' sign. ... until now.

"It started because (teammate) Courtney (Lee) said, ‘"You have the most boring three-point makes ever’ - no celebration, nothing,'' Kleber says. "I was 0-for-2 in a game, we were going into the fourth quarter and Courtney said, ‘Big shot coming up. And when you make it, you better call me.' That’s where is started.''