Dallas Mavericks’ Maxi Kleber may have unintentionally written himself into NBA postseason meme lore on Tuesday night.
Kleber, who had just returned from injury for Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals against the Minnesota Timberwolves, accidentally became the odd man out during one hilarious sequence on the court.
At one point during the game, Kleber appeared to mentally check out for a moment while his Mavs teammates were trying to get him to join their huddle. Luka Dončić, Kyrie Iriving and the rest of the Mavs starters looked practically in sync beckoning an unwitting Kleber to come over.
NBA fans on X (formerly known as Twitter) had a field day with the funny viral clip.
Coworkers trying to leave for lunch with the slow guy.
Maxi Kleber with this year's Mario Chalmers award pic.twitter.com/xMOmMzBI6h
when the uber xl shows up and your one friend is stuck talking to people he met that night pic.twitter.com/YLGJYDEAXP
😭😭😭😭😭
pic.twitter.com/fKlMHwWv9Z
The Mavericks ended up losing Game 4, 105-100, and will travel to Minnesota on Thursday for another chance to close out the series, now at 3-1.
KRISTEN WONG