How often have I said this line in interviews and articles “how has time flown by? I mean here and there, I interview a player again that I haven´t in say 5, 6, or 7 years and so much has happened in that time. So almost a year isn´t a decade, but in the basketball world where so much happens, it is a long time. Even if the Fraport Skyliners got used rapidly to the second division called the Pro A and are fighting to move back to the easyCredit BBL, it is still tough accepting the fact that one doesn´t see Quantez Robertson (188-SG-1984, college: Auburn, agency: Interperformances) also known as Tez flying up and down the floor anymore. After an illustrious 14 professional career with only one team the Fraport Skyliners, he decided to hang it up last season. After heading home for good in May 2023, he is coming back this Sunday to enter his living room again in the Suewag arena and see how his #23 gets lifted up next to Pascal Roller´s. So much happened in 14 years with Quantez Robertson and the Fraport Skyliners and everyone has their memories. When I think of top 10 lists, I right away have to think about David Letterman´s Late Show top 10 list that enriched his program every evening. For example some of his top 10 lists included headings like top 10 signs that you’re a lame superhero or top 10 things that sound cool when said by Snoop Dog or top 10 things you don´t want to hear from a guy dressed up as Santa Claus. It was always entertaining to hear what the top 10 items were. In the case of Quantez Robertson, I won´t make up a comical top 10 list about him, but present my personal 5 favorite moments that I had with Tez during his 14 seasons with the Fraport Skyliners.

I have so many beautiful memories with Quantez Robertson over his tenure with the Fraprot Skyliners that it wasn´t easy choosing a top 5, but here goes. My personal favorite moment with Tez at number 5 occurred in Chalon, France in 2016 moments after the Fraport Skyliners had secured their second team title winning the Fiba Europe Cup against Italian team Varese. I was fortunate to have been at the event and sat courtside. That season the Fraport Skyliners had blown away the competition in the Fiba Europe Cup and produced a 15 game winning streak until they lost their first game in Israel against Maccabi Haifa in the quarterfinals. They came back masterfully at home and blew them away 91-75. They were the favorite going into the final 4 in France and actually wouldn´t have an easy time beating Russian side Enisey 59-56 and experienced a real nail bitter in the final upending Varese 66-62. Quantez Robertson saved his best for last as in the 2 games prior to the final, he had put up the big goose egg in both games shooting 0/7, but in the final filled the stat sheet really well with 15/5/4/2 stats and scooping up the MVP honors. Even if the 2 games in Chalon were close, you never really had any worries of Frankfurt losing the game when you had the witty coach Gordon Herbert, the great playmaker Jordan Theodore and the heart and soul of the team and minister of defense Quantez Robertson. The great thing during the final was that even though there were a few 100 Skyliner fans in attendance, the Chalon fans had put the Frankfurt team into their hearts and were cheering them as well. It almost felt like a home game. The last seconds were incredible as one could sense the glory about to happen and then the buzzer sounded and Jordan Theodore had the ball and heaved the ball up into the direction of the Skyliner fans. I put down my pen and paper and jumped up and then all of a sudden I saw Quantez Robertson bolting to me and giving me a massive high five. Now the celebration could really start. Being able to be the first to really give him a high five is my #5 favorite moment with him.

My personal 4th favorite moment with Tez occurred in the 2013-2014 season. This wasn´t a great season for the Fraport Skyliners as they finished in 11th place missing the playoffs. Their future Euroleague German players Johannes Voigtmann and Danilo Barthel were still developing and not top BBL big men yet and the team had 2 young inexperienced point guards that were unable to lead the team to success. It was near the end of the season on April 25th as the team were playing on the road against Rasta Vechta. It was an important game for Rasta Vechta as they still had a minimal chance of remaining in the league. In crunch-time, it was a real dogfight as the Fraport Skyliners were trailing 75-73 with 7 seconds to play. Rasta Vechta had possession and were to inbound it from the sideline in their half. Frankfurt had to foul or if lucky get a steal. Ex NBA player Will Conroy had massive problems trying to find a teammate and then threw the ball in which was intercepted by a quick footed Quantez Robertson. There was no “now there´s a steal by Bird” from legendary Celtics play by play man Johnny Most, but a “steal Tez from me. He didn´t have much time, but saw Danilo Barthel coming up the floor and zipped the ball to him who quickly found ex Vanderbilt (NCAA) guard Kevin Bright on the right and he dropped a in your face three pointer for the victory. I was court side calling the game on Web Radio with my colleague Bjarne Tannen and we just went crazy with the buzzer beater. It was the perfect opportunity to scream my Bright nickname which was Kevin “the light is” Bright. Even if Tez didn´t make the memorable last shot, he began the play with a great defensive play something that he was known for. His stat line after 35 minutes read 7 points, 10 rebounds, 1 assist and 5 steals. I have called many buzzer beaters in my life and this is a top 3 in my collection.

My personal third favorite moment happened in his rookie season 2009-2010. I was really fortunate to have called 7 BBL allstar games early in my career from 2006-2012. Even if the allstar game had no importance for the teams in the standings, it was always a nice day where everyone involved in the German basketball community could come together and mingle and watch the BBL stars play for fun. I remember seeing great players like Julius Jenkins, Demond Mallet, Kyle Hines, Chris Ensminger or John Bryant win MVP over the years as well as ex Skyliner players like Jacob Burtschi win the three point contest in Trier or Keith Simmons win the dunk contest in Mannheim. During these allstar games, I always had the opportunity to have a player on my side as my side kick during the broadcast. I remember having Jimmy Mckinney in Trier and in Mannheim Keith Simmons was by my side way up in the balcony in the massive SAP arena that seats 15,000 people. During the 2010 Allstar game in Bonn, I invited Quantez Robertson to be my guest. Despite just having lost in the slam dunk contest, he was still a good sport and joined me for the whole game. Back in those days, he was a tad shyer than he is today, but from my memory, he did a superb job giving good analysis about the game as well as giving good insight about the players he battled every weekend in Germany. It was definitely a cool experience and even cooler now knowing that he became a Skyliner legend. At that time, he was a very talented rookie, but nobody knew how his career could have gone. If he had left after a season and never returned to Frankfurt then this experience wouldn´t have meant as much. But being able to have called a game with Skyliner legend Quantez Robertson will always be memorable for me

My personal second most favorite moment is actually in a span of 3 years from 2020 during Covid until today. In this time, our relationship seemed to grow simply because we had a much stronger journalist-player relationship. Before Covid, I had given Tez a few online interviews and interviewed him after many games in his first 11 seasons. But during Covid, my ideas for articles with Tez were just flowing as beautifully as the Boston Celtics current offense is and I was able to create some memorable stories. Of course Tez was a great sport who fed me great quotes for my interesting topics. I was able to contact him whenever I needed to and he was more than happy to give me 15-20 minutes time. Even if he had been witness to my endless post game interviews and writing style over the years, I believe at first he may have been amazed by some of my ideas, but overtime he got used to it. I was never a guy just to write common stuff about a basketball player so jazzing it up with certain topics was always high on my menu. It was always a pleasure interviewing Tez for these special pieces and then sitting down and putting it all together. Here is a list of my favorite articles I wrote about him with extra out of the ordinary titles. RETIRED FRAPORT SKYLINER LEGEND QUANTEZ ROBERTSON IS ENJOYING LIFE PLAYING PICKLE BALL AND RUNNING TO THE MAIL BOX WITH HIS SON. THE DAY BEGAN WITH A PRE GAME BACON AND EGGS SANDWICH FOR QUANTEZ ROBERTSON AND ENDED AS THE FRAPORT SKYLINERS ALL-TIME LEADING SCORER. SOMETIMES YOU DON´T HAVE TO SET FOOT INTO AN ARENA IN ORDER TO MEET THE FUTURE LEGENDS. WITH THE PAULDINGBURG NAME INTACT WHEN WILL QUANTEZ ROBERTSON RECEIVE THE TEZFURT DISTINCTION? THE MILES BASKETBALL MINUTE: QUANTEZ ROBERTSON (FRAPORT SKYLINERS) WOULD OF ALWAYS HAD TIME FOR THE KIDS HAD HE BEEN A NBA SUPERSTAR. EXPERIENCING THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER WITH QUANTEZ ROBERTSON (FRAPORT SKYLINERS). AN EASTER BASKETBALL SWEEP AND REESE´S PEANUT BUTTER CUPS WOULD SUIT THE FRAPORT SKYLINERS AND QUANTEZ ROBERTSON FINE. QUANTEZ ROBERTSON ACES THE BROSE BAMBERG HISTORY TEST. STOPPING PJ TUCKER WAS QUANTEZ ROBERTSON´S (FRAPORT SKYLINERS) BIGGEST NBA CHALLENGE. QUANTEZ ROBERTSON (FRAPORT SKYLINERS) FINDS SOME TOM BRADY MAGIC IN HIS HANDS. Thanks Tez for all the interviews. I enjoyed everyone.

My personal favorite moment with Tez happened almost 3 years ago, in April 2021 as Covid was in full swing and wearing masks was the norm. This is another moment where I can say how time has flown by. I feel like it was yesterday. it was real hard times as Covid was causing havoc all around the globe. I was in between surgeries in my fight against cancer, but luckily I still tried to catch as many games as possible. The Fraport Skyliners were playing the up and coming Niners Chemnitz with Argentine head coach Rodrigo Pastore. Not too long ago before the game, I had heard that there was going to be an article about me in an Argentine newspaper. Why an Argentine paper? Argentina and I have a big history. I went there for the first time in the early 80´2 as my parents had friends in Búenos Aires and this family there had many ranches. I went there a few times after and then in the 90´s almost twice a year on vacations mainly because I had gotten to love the country and it´s people. There was especially one town General Villegas about 500 kilometers west of Buenos Aires that touched my heart. I got to know so many people that turned into life long friends. The town newspaper wanted to write an article about me and my life. They wanted some photos and I came up with a great idea of making one with Tez after the game. Back in 1994, the mother of my best friend Sebastian made me a shirt with the town name and her restaurant name as a kind of joke that I could wear during my road races since I have always been a passionate runner.. Almost 30 years later, I still had the shirt and wore it for the Tez picture. I remember Rodrigo Pastore seeing the shirt and wondering where I had unearthed that from. Tez and I took the picture together and soon after the article came out with our photo. It was only logical that I would write a piece on this experience. The title read as follows SHOOTING THE BREEZE WITH QUANTEZ ROBERTSON (FRAPORT SKYLINERS) AND GLEAMING ABOUT GETTING HIS PICTURE INTO AN ARGENTINE NEWSPAPER. Tez gave his 2 cents about the photo. “. I have never been or played in South America, but it was pretty cool to be able to say I made the newspaper there. It was awesome to see”, stated Quantez Robertson. When he retired last year, I had produced 67 titles with his name in it. Now with this new article, the title count stands at 71. Tez was a very special player and also unique personality. I´m 100% sure that the title count won´t stand at 71 long, but will keep going. Thanks Tez for all the memories on and off the court. Let´s keep the title count going.