Skyliners Frankfurt

The Skyliners Frankfurt, formerly known as Fraport Skyliners for sponsorship reasons, are a professional basketball club based in Frankfurt, Germany. 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 Frankfurt Skyliners until his retirement in 2011. Besides Roller, numerous other players of the German national team played multiple seasons for the Skyliners. A notable non-German basketball player is Mario Kasun, who played for the Skyliners when he was discovered and eventually drafted by the NBA team Orlando Magic in 2002.

History

The foundation

In 1999, Gunnar Woebke, 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.

After preventing a relegation to the second tier ProA in the 2021/22 Basketball Bundesliga season by receiving a wildcard, the team again finished 17th in the 2022/23 season and relegated. Denis Wucherer was announced as new head coach for the following 2023/24 season.

Arena

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

Honours and titles

Total titles: 3

Worldwide

• FIBA Intercontinental Cup

Runners-up: 2016

European competition

• FIBA Europe Cup Champions: 2015–16
• FIBA EuroChallenge Fourth place: 2014–15

Domestic competition

• Basketball Bundesliga Champions: 2003–04 Runners-up: 2004–05, 2009–10
• BBL-Pokal Winners: 2000 Runners-up: 2004, 2010

Players

Current roster

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

Retired numbers

Notable 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.

• Germany Danilo Barthel 5 seasons: '11–'16
• Germany Isaac Bonga 2 seasons: '16–'18
• Germany Robert Garrett3 seasons: '02–'05
• Germany Stefano Garris 3 seasons: '05–'08
• Germany Alex King 6 seasons: '03–'08
• Germany Konstantin Klein 4 seasons: '12–'16
• Germany Leon Kratzer 2 seasons: '18–'20
• Germany Robert Maras 5 seasons: '00–'05
• Germany Kai Nürnberger 4 seasons: '99–'03
• Germany Pascal Roller 10 seasons: '99–'06, '07–'11
• Germany Len Schoormann 3 seasons: '19–'22
• Germany Akeem Vargas 2 seasons: '18–'20
• Germany Johannes Voigtmann 4 seasons: '12–'16
• Canada Aaron Doornekamp 2 seasons: '14–'16
• Canada Philip Scrubb 2 seasons: '16–'18
• Croatia Mario Kasun 2 seasons: '02–'04
• Finland Shawn Huff 2 seasons: '17–'19
• Finland Mikko Koivisto1 season: '14–'15
• Finland Jukka Matinen 4 seasons: '02–'06
• Finland Kimmo Muurinen 1 season: '10–'11
• Georgia (country) Tyrone Ellis 2 seasons: '03–'05
• Netherlands Matt Haarms 2 seasons: '21–'23
• Senegal Malick Badiane 3 seasons: '03–'06
• Sweden Rudy Mbemba 3 seasons: '05–'08
• United States Kavossy Franklin 2 seasons: '04–'06
• United States Tyron McCoy 2 seasons: '00–'02
• United States Antonio Meeking 2 seasons: '05–'06, '07–'08
• United States Quantez Robertson 14 seasons: '09–23
• United States Chris Williams 2 seasons: '03–'05

Head coach position

• Germany Stefan Koch – 1999–2001
• Canada Gordon Herbert – 2001–2004
• Turkey Murat Didin – 2004–2005
• Croatia Ivan Sunara – 2005–2006
• Czechoslovakia Kamil Novak – 2006
• Sweden Charles Barton – 2006–2007
• Greece Mike Kalavros – 2007
• Turkey Murat Didin – 2007–2010
• Canada Gordon Herbert – 2010–2011
• Israel Muli Katzurin − 2011–2013
• Canada Gordon Herbert – 2013–2019
• Germany Sebastian Gleim – 2019–2021
• Spain Diego Ocampo – 2021–2022
• Italy Luca Dalmonte – 2022
• Netherlands Geert Hammink – 2022–2023
• Germany Klaus Perwas – 2023
• Germany Denis Wucherer – 2023–2025
• Germany Klaus Perwas – 2025–present

Season by season

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.

Kit

Manufacturer

Sponsor

External links

• (in English and German)
• at youtube.com