He still has that bushy beard that started as a routine playoff beard a few years ago, but with time Danilo Barthel has seemed to have developed a fascination with the facial hair something that his mother may still be coming to terms with. But what is different, the Hedielberg native isn´t sitting on the bench next to the X block in the Fraport arena, but on the right side and the colors of the blue and white have turned into the bright red and even if the beginning letter to his team does begin with an F, many Fraport Skyliner fans have had  a hard time adjusting to the FC instead of the Fraport. After 167 games in the jersey of the Fraport Skyliners from 2011-2016, Barthel made the logical step last summer and joined Germany´s most famous sports brand FC Bayern Munich where he got two things he couldn´t get with Frankfurt with more dough and BBL title aspirations. In his time with the Fraport Skyliners, fans will never forget his poster dunk over Patrick Ewing jr in 2012 or his neverending hustle under the boards where he received more elbows, bruises and bloody noses than any other Skyliner in the last years. This season with FC Bayern Munich, Barthel has seen less action than with the Fraport Skyliners, but done the best out of his minutes as he was averaging 8,1ppg, 2,9rpg and 1,4apg in 11 minutes and 16 minutes per game coming into the Frankfurt game. The German has received stiff competition from other German national player and power forward Maxi Kleber and so far has had to be second fiddle as the ex Wurzburg player has the starting job position. The 25 year old 211cm power forward who had his taste of the NBA in the summer of 2014 where he played NBA Summer League with the Miami Heat returned back to his old stomping ground and living room of the Fraport arena and helped his team round out another normal day at the office by toppling the Fraport Skyliners 77-57 as they rebounded nicely from their embarrassing loss in Bonn where they relinquished 95 points.

After the huge victory, most of FC Bayern Munich was already on the bus, but Barthel was still making the rounds of greeting old friends and well wishers and finally reached the locker room 35 minutes after the game had ended and was elated about his return back to Frankfurt. (more…)