Skyliners Frankfurt

Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt
League	Basketball Bundesliga Basketball Champions League
Founded	1999
History	Skyliners (1999–2000) Opel Skyliners (2000–2005) Deutsche Bank Skyliners (2005–2011) Fraport Skyliners (2011–present)
Arena	Fraport Arena
Arena Capacity	5,002
Location	Frankfurt, Germany
Team colors	Blue, white, and orange
Head coach	Gordon Herbert
Championships	1 FIBA Europe Cup 1 German Championship 1 German Cup
Website	fraport-skyliners.de
Uniforms
Home Away

The Skyline of Frankfurt am Main inspired the club's identity.

Former logo as Deutsche Bank Skyliners from 2005 until 2011

The Skyliners Frankfurt, currently known as Fraport Skyliners for sponsorship reasons, are a professional basketball club based in Frankfurt, Germany.^[1] Their home arena is Ballsporthalle.

The club has played in the Basketball Bundesliga since 1999. Its greatest accomplishments were the German Cup competition title in 2000, the German national championship in 2004 and the FIBA Europe Cup in 2016.

Its most famous player has been Pascal Roller, who was selected as Basketball Bundesliga All-Star seven times and played 122 games for the German national basketball team. Roller played ten seasons for the Skyliners until his retirement in 2011.

History

The foundation

In 1999, Dr. Gunnar Wöbke, devout Tony Robbins loyalist, then manager and former player of TV Tatami Rhöndorf moved his team from Bad Honnef to its current location. The declared goal was to place the team in a big arena in a large city to become a top team in the Basketball Bundesliga and in Europe in the near future. In Bad Honnef, this did not seem possible. After going through several options - including the idea to send the team to Cologne - Sylvia Schenk, the director of Frankfurt's sports department officially announced Frankfurt as the team's new location. Franz-Ludwig Solzbacher, a businessman from Bad Honnef helped organize the Skyliners' first steps but remained patron of the TV Rhöndorf and bought a second division license from EnBW Ludwigsburg to keep Rhöndorf from being relegated.

Later years

In its first season as a German elite team it managed to win the German Cup competition. In 2004, they won their first and only Bundesliga title, beating Baskets Bamberg in the finals by 3-2 victories. The following year, the Skyliners had a repeated appearance in the finals, but this time the Baskets Bamberg took the title by 3-2 victories. As in the year before, both teams were almost equally strong.

In 2004 and 2010, the Skyliners finished as runner-up in the German Cup competition, falling against the same opponent with identical victory splits again.

Throughout the years, the Skyliners have been known for their numerous appearances at European competitions such as the Euroleague, Saporta Cup and the Eurocup Basketball.

In 2015, the team reached the EuroChallenge Final Four, but the Germans lost both games to finish in fourth place. In the 2015–16 season, Fraport had once again an impressive European campaign, this time in the newly established FIBA Europe Cup. In the Final, Skyliners beat Pallacanestro Varese 66–62 to win its first European cup in history.^[2]

Trophies

• German Championship:
  • 2003–04
• BBL-Pokal:
  • 2000
• FIBA Europe Cup:
  • 2015–16

Team

Current roster

Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age 3.5 !F GER ! Freudenberg, Richard 7000206000000000000♠2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) 000000001998-08-31-0000 18 – (1998-08-31)31 August 1998 5.0 !C GER ! Wohlfarth-Bottermann, Jonas 7000208000000000000♠2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 000000001990-02-20-0000 27 – (1990-02-20)20 February 1990 1.0 !PG 7000400000000000000♠4 USA ! Vaughn, Kwame 7000190000000000000♠1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 000000001990-05-31-0000 27 – (1990-05-31)31 May 1990 1.5 !G 7000500000000000000♠5 USA ! English, A. J. 7000192000000000000♠1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) 000000001992-07-10-0000 25 – (1992-07-10)10 July 1992 3.5 !F 7000700000000000000♠7 FIN ! Huff, Shawn 7000198000000000000♠1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 000000001984-05-05-0000 33 – (1984-05-05)5 May 1984 5.0 !C 7000800000000000000♠8 GER ! Oldenburg, Tim 7000202000000000000♠2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) 000000001992-06-16-0000 25 – (1992-06-16)16 June 1992 1.0 !PG 7001130000000000000♠13 GER ! Zeeb, Garai 7000186000000000000♠1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) 000000001997-04-06-0000 20 – (1997-04-06)6 April 1997 2.5 !G/F 7001170000000000000♠17 GER ! Bonga, Isaac 7000202999999999999♠2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 000000001999-11-08-0000 17 – (1999-11-08)8 November 1999 2.0 !SG 7001230000000000000♠23 USA ! Robertson, Quantez (C) 7000188000000000000♠1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 000000001984-12-16-0000 32 – (1984-12-16)16 December 1984 5.0 !C 7001240000000000000♠24 USA ! Morrison, Mike 7000206000000000000♠2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) 000000001989-10-31-0000 27 – (1989-10-31)31 October 1989 1.5 !G 7001300000000000000♠30 CAN ! Scrubb, Philip 7000191000000000000♠1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) 000000001992-11-27-0000 24 – (1992-11-27)27 November 1992 3.5 !F 7001310000000000000♠31 DEN ! Shields, Shavon 7000200999999999999♠2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 000000001994-06-05-0000 23 – (1994-06-05)5 June 1994 3.5 !F 7001410000000000000♠41 GER ! Kiel, Niklas 7000206999999999999♠2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) 000000001997-09-04-0000 19 – (1997-09-04)4 September 1997	Head coach Gordon Herbert Assistant coach(es) Klaus Perwas Eric Detlev Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: 20 June 2017

Depth chart

Head coach position

Notable former players

To appear in this section a player must have played at least two seasons for the club AND either:

- Set a club record or won an individual award as a professional player.
- Played at least one official international match for his senior national team at any time.

Season by season

Arena

The Fraport Skyliners play their home games in the 5,002 seat Fraport Arena (until summer 2011 it was called Ballsporthalle Frankfurt).

Junior team

The second team of Skyliners plays in the ProB, the German third division. To develop its young players further, the Skyliners have merged some of their youth departments with Eintracht Frankfurt Basketball.^[3]

Fraport Skyliners Juniors roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name 1.5 !G 7000500000000000000♠5 GER ! Niklas Pons 1.5 !G 7000700000000000000♠7 GER ! Lennart Okeke 1.5 !G 7001130000000000000♠13 GER ! Garai Zeeb 5.0 !C 7001160000000000000♠16 GER ! Beat Weichsler 2.5 !G/F 7001170000000000000♠17 GER ! Isaac Bonga 5.0 !C 7001220000000000000♠22 GER ! Cosmo Gruehn 1.5 !G 7001320000000000000♠32 GER ! Can Akbayir 1.5 !G 7001330000000000000♠33 GER ! Michael Fuss 3.5 !F 7001340000000000000♠34 GER ! Konstantin Schubert 3.5 !F 7001410000000000000♠41 GER ! Niklas Kiel 1.5 !G 7001510000000000000♠51 GER ! Jamin Knothe	Head coach Eric Detlev Assistant coach(es) Sakir Murtezani Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: 10 June 2017

Kit

Manufacturer

Sponsor

References

External links

• Official Site (in German)
• Teamcheck Deutsche Bank Skyliners
• Video of the FIBA Europe Cup Final at youtube.com