Skyliners Frankfurt

Fraport Skyliners
League	Basketball Bundesliga
Founded	1999; 25 years ago (1999)
History	Skyliners (1999–2000) Opel Skyliners (2000–2005) Deutsche Bank Skyliners (2005–2011) Fraport Skyliners (2011–present)
Arena	Süwag Energie ARENA
Capacity	5,002
Location	Frankfurt, Germany
Team colors	Blue, White and Orange
Main sponsor	Fraport
CEO	Yannick Binas
General manager	Marco Völler
Head coach	Denis Wucherer
Affiliation(s)	Skyliners Juniors
Championships	1 FIBA Europe Cup 1 German Championship 1 German Cup
Website	fraport-skyliners.de
Home Away

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 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.

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.

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]

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. ^[3] Denis Wucherer was announced as new head coach for the following 2023/24 season.^[4]

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

Total titles: 3

• FIBA Intercontinental Cup

Runners-up: 2016

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

• Basketball Bundesliga^[5]
  • Champions: 2003–04
    • Runners-up: 2004–05, 2009–10
• BBL-Pokal^[5]
  • Winners: 2000
    • Runners-up: 2004, 2010

Fraport Skyliners roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Age SG 0 Parsons, Malik 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 25 – (1999-08-17)17 August 1999 G 1 Albrecht, Bruno 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) 23 – (2001-10-28)28 October 2001 PG 2 Calvin, Trey 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 23 – (2001-06-29)29 June 2001 PG 3 Zeeb, Garai 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) 27 – (1997-04-06)6 April 1997 G 6 Coplin, Booker 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) 27 – (1997-11-19)19 November 1997 SG 7 Lanmüller, Timo 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 23 – (2001-03-17)17 March 2001 C 8 Croswell, Ed 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) 25 – (1999-09-06)6 September 1999 SF 10 Philipps, Christoph 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 26 – (1998-09-15)15 September 1998 G 10 Onyia, Alvin 1.77 m (5 ft 10 in) 24 – (2000-11-25)25 November 2000 PF 21 Brenneke, Lorenz 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) 24 – (2000-01-02)2 January 2000 C 25 Knauf, Jacob 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) 27 – (1997-03-12)12 March 1997 PF 37 Tubutis, Einaras 2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) 26 – (1998-11-04)4 November 1998 F 55 Muenkat, David 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 24 – (2000-07-02)2 July 2000 F 98 Hecker, Felix 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) 26 – (1998-08-07)7 August 1998	Head coach Denis Wucherer Assistant coach(es) Klaus Perwas Sepehr Tarrah Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: September 14, 2024

Skyliners Frankfurt retired numbers
No	Nat.	Player	Position	Tenure	Date retired
11		Pascal Roller	PG	1999–2011	October 4, 2011[6][7]

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.

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.^[8]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Skyliners Frankfurt.

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