It has been more than two months since the Fraport Skyliners ended the season in fine fashion beating Wurzburg and Hamburg in their last two games despite not reaching the easyCredit BBL playoffs. A few days later Quantez Robertson was on his way home back to the United States. Over the years he has been making the trip back over the pond flying from Frankfurt and depending how beneficial the ticket price was flew over Dallas, Atlanta or even Charlotte to Huntsville, Alabama. He had a lot to contemplate about on his long flight home in May 2021. “I thought that we played hard and fought each game. I feel like we were only a few games short of making the playoffs. A few mishaps got in the way”, stressed Quantez Robertson. It is the dog days of summer as I reached Quantez Robertson on a Saturday afternoon on the first day of the Summer Olympics. The ex Auburn(NCAA) stand out was in good spirits and why shouldn´t he be when he can be with his family, but as is always is the case in the deep south, finding that cool spot outside is a massive reach. “It´s been a very hot summer. We have had 100 degree days. I´m glad that we have great air conditioning in the house”, laughed Quantez Robertson. Even if it was a very scorching hot summer, he didn´t sit around lazy, but kept very busy. He obviously stayed very occupied concerning the game he loves. He will be turning 37 in December and has to battle guys 10 years younger and more on a regular basis. Even at his age, he is still very focused on perfecting his game. He got up in the morning at headed to the gym at 10:30 or 11:00 and then did two hours of basketball work. He then went home relaxed and would go to his kid´s sports games or play with them around the house. He didn´t hit the weight room, because he didn´t want to put on added muscle weight. He also stayed active with his conditioning running on the track and running on the treadmill. The biggest highlight for him this summer was being able to spend a lot of time with his family. Even if it only a phone call, you know his eyes were lighting up when talking about his kids. “My eight year old daughter plays soft ball and my five year old son baseball. He is also playing flag football. I went to a lot of their practices and games. They couldn´t play basketball because of Corona, but they will in the future. It has been a pretty full summer for me”, stated Quantez Robertson. But the family also were able to check out a famous amusement park that the Brady Bunch helped make famous in the early 70´s. “We went to Cincinnati and visited some amusement parks with some friends and their kids. We went to Kings Island and had a blast”, commented Quantez Robertson.

                As rapidly as he got home in mid May, just as quickly he will have to head back to Germany in a few weeks to start his 13^th professional season with the Fraport Skyliners. As usual at this time of the year, clubs seek out new players for the upcoming season and it wasn´t any different with the Fraport Skyliners. They first got a new coach with Diego Ocampo a Spanish instructor that is looking to follow in the foot steps of Aito and Pedro Calles in the easyCredit BBL. Robertson is really excited to play for a Spanish coach, but is still guessing about what type of style we will see from the team. “I´m not too familiar with the new coach yet. But I feel like we will be one of the youngest teams so I can imagine us being a fast paced team”, said Quantez Robertson. Tez also has been observing the new player transactions from a far and took the news very neutrally and wasn´t surprised that the club didn´t get any experienced BBL players. “I think that it really has to do what the coach prefers. New guys are always coming each season and guys work out”, stated Quantez Robertson. The moves that the Fraport Skyliners have made have been surprising in a way, but in a way also weren´t. In terms of the imports they have added three guys with Donovan Donaldson who has that special chip on his shoulder having played NCAA 2 chip ball and has put up huge stats in lower leagues as a pro, Dutch rookie Matt Haarms who is a 221cm giant who played at Brigham Young and has a lot of potential and another big man named Brooks DeBischhop who put up solid stats in Belarus last season. Robertson who kind of was a player that was off everyone´s radar in 2009 except Murat Didin knows what it is like to come to an organization not being a household name. “I can remember my first few years that we had guys that weren´t known. Guys like Ramon Galloway and Jared Dubois were guys like that. But they showed that they could do good things. I am very confident that our team will do good things this season”, warned Quantez Robertson. He also will have to get used to not seeing former teammate Marco Voeller on the court, but see him watching the guys play from his office window in the BCM. But calling the new Sport manager boss may be a step too steep for Tez. “His new job in a way is funny and also kind of weird. It will take some getting used to seeing him in the front office and not on the court. My favorite memory of him was in Vechta when he hit a turn around shot to give us the lead a few years ago. It was just something you didn´t expect from him”, said Quantez Robertson.

                If your going to shoot the breeze with Quantez Robertson during the dog days of summer, you obviously have to include basketball and what better topics then the Olympics and 2021 NBA finals. Team USA stunk up pre season losing to Nigeria and Team Australia and did it again in their first Olympic game in Japan against France. The pre season loses shocked Quantez Robertson immensely. “They shouldn´t have lost those games to Nigeria and Australia. They don´t have much time to get ready. The lacking chemistry and overall physicality of the game in Europe will hurt them. Even the American TV commentators said that the game is a lot more physical in Europe. Team USA just don’t have many bigs”, stressed Quantez Robertson. Obviously the physicality of the other nations could give Team USA problems, but the American knows exactly where their strength lies. “Team USA´s perimeter defense and great outside shooting will help them. The additions of Booker, Holiday and Middleton will be important. They have so many scorers. They just have to somehow play strong under the basket”, stressed Quantez Robertson. Despite the early loss to France where Evan Fornier put on a show with 28 points, there is no doubt for Tez who will win the Gold. “Team USA will win the Gold. I have a lot of confidence in the guys”, warned Quantez Robertson. He also has team Germany on his radar as many of his ex teammates and opponents from the easyCredit BBL are battling in Japan. “I think Australia will advance and it will be between Germany and Italy for that second spot. Nigeria is good, but even with so many NBA players, many don´t play solid minutes there”, added Quantez Robertson. Robertson who had many play ground duels in Cincinnati with ex Phoenix Hagen guard Mark Dorris obviously also followed the NBA finals between the Suns and Bucks. The Bucks win surprised him. “I thought the Suns would win, because they looked better at one point. The difference was Jru Holiday. He stepped up his scoring in the last games when Chris Paul had some bad games”, said Quantez Robertson. Even if Chris Paul still hasn´t won a NBA ring, the guy simply has too much respect form the basketball community to be classified as a chocker. “He isn´t that at all. Things just didn´t fall in place for him. He had some great games. He just wasn´t good enough to get over the hump”, expressed Quantez Robertson. Paul still has the skills despite being 36 to play some more years. Wouldn´t it make sense to go to the Lakers? “Yes it would. He is good friends with Lebron, but I don´t know if it could happen”, said Quantez Robertson. The dog days of summer are winding down for Quantez Robertson as in a few weeks, he will be expected in Frankfurt for the new season. Now he can enjoy the Olympics and his kids and know that he has one up on Chris Paul. Even if Tez never reached the NBA despite having the defensive skills to teach many guys one thing or two there, he has that one chip having won the 2016 Fiba Europe Cup title and nobody can ever take that away from him.