In the third year of the Fraport Skyliners three year plan where in the first year the club focused on giving the young German players more minutes, in the second year reaching the playoffs, everything came true to plan as head coach Gordon Herbert had preached at the start of the season proclaiming that the team would become a top 5 team, reach the cup Top 4 and win the Fiba Europe Cup. However after all the enormous success that the organization Fraport Skyliners had in the regular season steam rolling over the competition for long stretches of the season and losing only twice at home and winning the Fiba Europe Cup and being only the fourth German team to ever win an international tournament, everyone in Skyliner country got a bit greedy and even had the audacity to predict capping off the season with the Beko BBL title and for some reason boldly neglecting to remember that the 31-3 Brose Baskets Bamberg were the team to beat. One could compare the successful climb up the Beko BBL standings and towards the Fiba Europe Cup title a bit to the worlds most famous mountain climber Reinhold Messner. Messner is best known for being the first guy to climb Mount Everest without Supplemental oxygen and the first mountaineer to ascend all fourteen peaks over 8000 meters above sea level. The Fraport Skyliners climbed up many difficult steep hurdles this season with the most adventurous and most bothersome at the Fiba Europe Cup Final 4 in Chalon, France where they had to win back to back games against Enisey and Varese to clinch the clubs third club title. However the Fraport Skyliners met their most crucial challenge in the playoffs with ratiopharm Ulm in the semi finals and were continuing to climb new heights and fighting to reach the final and despite being down 2-1 in games and having a 6-1 record in do or die games, the 2004 Beko BBL champion were near the peak, but came up a little short. Whereas a Messner has to battle weather problems when they occur in order to make the perfect climb to the peak, the Fraport Skyliners were denied by the clock and a deflection on the last play from Jordan Theodore to Mike Morrison that ended their season.
Frankfurt Skyliners
The Fraport Skyliners Practice 9 Lives And Follow The Golden State Warriors Down Narrow Comeback Trail
After the seemingly alarming 85-54 annihilation of ratiopharm Ulm, the Fraport Skyliners didn´t have their usual big celebration routine when they all lie on the floor and perform the Humba dance to the delight of the fans. Instead the players were more reserved and in business like mode which wasn´t surprising since the club still had their backs to the wall and still on a steep climb to get over the annoying hump that ratiopharm Ulm had inflicted upon them. Jordan Theodore had a different mimic than usual as he wasn´t so much the confident tell all story teller about the game, but more reflective and thankful that his season was prolonged and just looking forward one game at a time while his teammate Mike Morrison had his usual post game demeanor of gliding through the arena corridors in a graceful, but quiet manner having unending thoughts about the game and just looking forward to the next challenge in Ulm. In his thoughts, Morrison might also have had NBA player Mareese Speights who has some similarities with the Frankfurt big man in that both come from the beautiful coastal city of St Petersburg in Florida, play the center position, have been at some point in their careers journey men in the NBA and Europe, but as of late found a second home in Oakland and Frankfurt as Speights is playing his third season with the Warriors and Morrison his second with the Fraport Skyliners. The other crucial similarity that both possess at the moment is that they have helped contribute to that 9 lives feeling that both the Golden State Warriors and Fraport Skyliners have had as both have been in a hole with their respective teams fighting to survive in their series. In the last days, it has been Golden State that have set the tone in the comeback trail with the Fraport Skyliners following their lead winning slowly digging themselves out of desperation. With Golden State down 3-1 in games, they showed a strong effort at home winning 120-111 as Curry and Thompson combined for 58 points, but also got an all-around solid effort from Speights with 14 points in nine minutes. The Fraport Skyliners followed this masterful performance with their own fabulous performance with the slaughter against ratiopharm Ulm where they got a total team effort and Mike Morrison flourished with 11 points in 14 minutes and like Speights was very efficient and just dominated the paint as Ulm had no way of keeping him in check. Golden State then followed the Frankfurt lead 10 hours later with a heroic and courageous win on the road coming back from 15 down and winning 108-101 as Klay Thompson exploded with 41 points and Steph Curry quietly added 31 points to deadlock the series at 3-3. In order to keep this perfect fairytale alive, the Fraport Skyliners now have to follow in the Warriors lead and on Tuesday to even the series at 2-2. “We hang out in the summer and workout together and play together also. Mareese Speights is someone who I definitely look up to. His tweet about how the series was far from over was inspiring and helped me keep my mind in the right place”, stressed Fraport Skyliner Mike Morrison. Cats might be jumping from trees and dodging cars on more of a regular basis than Frankfurt and Golden State are staying alive on the court, but they do it daily while the two basketball clubs only have to do it three more times in their respective series and then hope with less backs to the wall in the next series, but more command and leverage against their next opponent. “I think it is possible that both the Warriors and the Skylines can come back and win their series. Both teams have won their last games and have good momentum and confidence going into the next game. If they can use this to their advantage and come out and take care of their business everything will be ok”, stressed Saarlouis guard Rickey Easterling.
The Fraport Skyliners Live Another Day Destroying ratiopharm Ulm 85-54 To Force Game 4
If someone had had the audacity to have whispered in the ear of Fraport Skyliners head coach Gordon Herbert a few hours prior to game one stating that this wasn´t a late April Fools day joke that eight days later, Frankfurt would be plastered with their backs to the wall down 2-0, he probably would have given a soft response in his low Canadian voice and muttered “I sure hope that doesn´t happen”, but in reality everyone´s thinking in basketball Frankfurt that the Fraport Skyliners would quickly dispose of ratiopharm Ulm and march into the final were about as wrong as anyone that suggested that the Golden State Warriors would get by the Oklahoma Thunder with ease. In the first two games the Fraport Skyliners played under their capabilities losing that defensive force and edge that had carried them the whole season as they were 21 points over their average giving up 86 points per game instead of 65. They also were unable to match the physicality and cleverness of their opponent as they were only able to get to the free throw line 42 times as Ulm did 78 times. The other big factor for the two loses were their inability to execute in OT as Per Guenther buried them in OT in game one and in game two, Frankfurt let ratiopharm Ulm escape out on a 10-0 run in the last two minutes to prevail and lead 2-0. Having do or die games are never easy, but this season, the 2004 Beko BBL champion has been able to master these type of scenarios rather well as they had a 4-1 record going into game three at home. Frankfurt beat the EWE Baskets Oldenburg to get into the Beko BBL cup Top 4, but lost to Alba Berlin in the cup competition, but disposed of Maccabi Rishon to reach the Fiba Europe Cup Final 4 and there won do or die games against Enisey and Varese. The Fraport Skyliners wanted to keep their illustrious season alive and force a game 4 in Ulm and lived to see another day in basketball terms as they found back to their creative and inspiring Skyliner basketball destroying ratiopharm Ulm 85-54. After the win, Fraport Skyliner guard Jordan Theodore had a different mimic than usual as he wasn´t so much the confident tell all story teller about the game, but more reflective and thankful that his season was prolonged as he discussed why Frankfurt was able to continue. “We had two rough games against ratiopharm Ulm, but got back on track again. The difference was that we didn´t play Skyliner basketball in the first two games, but did in game three where we executed on offense and scored off our defense and played good defense. I have to credit out bigs for doing a good job on their bigs. We understood that it was a do or die game and just played great defense and kept them out of their comfort zone”, stressed ex Seton Hall point guard Jordan Theodore. Ratiopharm played an inspired game for 15 minutes, but then as if dark storm clubs had come, were unable to execute any longer at a consistent rate on offense and just couldn´t get stops as the Frankfurt offensive arsenal just kept scoring and scoring at a much more consistent rate as in the first two games and more at ease. “Frankfurt wanted it more than we did. They were very aggressive on offense and defense. They did a good job winning the matchup problems and got Raymar Morgan into early foul trouble. You have to give respect to Frankfurt as they played with heart and had to win at home”, stressed ratiopharm Ulm guard Carlon Brown.
The Fraport Skyliners Need A Serious Dose Of True Skyliner Basketball To Withstand A ratiopharm Ulm Sweep
After the satisfying and crushing sweep of 8 time Beko BBL champion Alba Berlin, it seemed like everyone in Skyliner country had fast forwarded to the final and already put in their votes of finals MVP for Jordan Theodore over current MVP Brad Wanamaker and dreaming of a second celebration at the famous Frankfurt landmark Romer. However for some reason everybody seemed to forget about the pesky ratiopharm Ulm who have not only made basketball life extremely difficult for the little darlings of the Beko BBL Frankfurt, but drove the 2016 Fiba Europe Cup champion to the brink of elimination as they have been the huge surprise of the playoffs upsetting the EWE Baskets Oldenburg and now is one game away of reaching the final. Everybody was awaiting a response from the Fraport Skyliners in game two in Ulm after their bitter 90-86 loss in game one at home, but instead lost the game in crunch time for a second time in a row which is as unusual this season for the team as it is for Mike Morrison not to be the recipient of an alley-oop pass and finish with a crushing dunk each game. Following the game at the press conference, Fraport Skyliner head coach Gordon Herbert gave his two cents to the loss and kept it short stating it was difficult to win when the opponent shoots 80 free throws in two games. The facial expression of Herbert during his brief direct words was the kind you would get when your best friend had fooled around with your woman or when the family dog in barren North Dakota where the nearest town is 30 miles away without a sports bar mixes up the remote for some ground beef on the eve of the Super Bowl. One could of painted Gordon Herbert all red and added some feathers and a black beak and he could of fit in well as a replacement for Red in the new flick Angry Birds. Herbert can be as angry as he wants to be, but come Saturday, he will have to funnel that anger into positive energy and help his team break out of this quick sand, because the team is sinking quickly. Frankfurt seems to have the long season talking with their bodies while ratiopharm Ulm seem to be very fresh at the moment. They need to break out their typical Skyliner basketball which is letting their league best defense spark their offense which has that Bamberg junior like tantalizing ball movement to get back on track in this series.
Per Guenther Buries The Fraport Skyliners In OT Leading ratiopharm Ulm To 90-86 Win In Game One
It wasn´t all to long ago where the Fraport Skyliners couldn´t buy themselves a win as who could forget the second half of the 2013-2014 season where the 2004 Beko BBL champion seemed to grow this nasty phobia that they were unable to win games in crunch time as their reluctance to pull out close battles in that time was about as unlikely as any sane basketball fan now to doubt the possibility of Durant and Westbrook of achieving the upset of the Golden State Warriors. However in the last two years, the Fraport Skyliners have had a steady progress and development in the players play and team chemistry that has put the team into a viable position to reach the Beko BBL final again something they last did in 2010. What the club has produced in the last two months has been extraordinary as they have constructed a 12 game winning streak in the Beko BBL, brought home the Fiba Europe Cup title and swept the helpless and caged Alba Berlin who wanted to fly, fly, fly away, but instead were stopped by the bars in their nest penitentiary. If someone had boldly predicted before the season that Frankfurt would sweep and totally lock down the Alba Berlin offense to an average of 65 points in the three game series, one would have declared you as crazy. The Fraport Skyliners may have been idle for almost a week, but were able to stich up their walking wounded and rest while ratiopharm Ulm had to recuperate faster from their exciting 3-1 series win against the EWE Baskets Oldenburg were the last three games were decided by a combined total of nine points. Some may have been thinking, if one can sweep the mighty Alba Berlin then why not ratiopharm Ulm? Ratiopharm Ulm entered the Fraport arena with a very strong roster and with their heart and soul diminutive German national player Per Guenther who is their motor and their own Godzilla Raymar Morgan who had not been a beast in the Oldenburg series, but a super beast averaging 24 points and nine rebounds in the four game series. Ratiopharm Ulm wanted to steal the Frankfurt home court advantage on the road and did shocking the Fraport Skyliners in game one 90-86 in OT as they were the first team in five and a half months to depart the Fraport arena with a win. It was a first in many areas for fans and players to bear as the Fraport Skyliners couldn´t execute and hit open shots as if they were on the beach and missed the water and played defense as if it was the first day of training camp as their Skyliner brand of basketball was nonexistent. Fraport Skyliner American Jordan Theodore who enjoys to take over in crunch time couldn´t get the job done in OT and was the first to point a finger at himself. “I didn´t play well at all. I have to play better and will in game two. We didn´t execute on offense and just got beat over and over on defense. In the playoffs, you need to play with a lot of intensity, but we didn´t. We weren´t ready to play. I give a lot of credit to Ulm for getting the win. We lost the game in the first half”, explained Englewood, New Jersey native Jordan Theodore. One may have thought, that ratiopharm Ulm may be more fatigued after the hard four game series against the EWE Baskets Oldenburg, but they were ready to play from the jump and just played an overall solid game and were the first team in months to have scouted correctly in making so much so difficult for Frankfurt. “We played hard tonight. We knew that Frankfurt does a great job with their high low play with Voigtmann and Barthel and I felt we did a good job taking that away. On offense we did a good job executing despite Frankfurt keying in on me and not letting me get more shots”, stated ex Boston Celtics shooting guard Chris Babb.
The Miles Basketball Minute: 2016 Beko BBL Semi-final Playoff Preview: Fraport Skyliners-ratiopharm Ulm 3-0
It is sometimes bizarre how two seemingly similar occurrences happened at the same time almost one year apart with two new players coming on board to their respective teams and being dominant right away and being the central figures in the complete turnaround of the teams. Back in November of 2014, the Fraport Skyliners had started the season 3-7 and were totally underachieving, but had severe injury woes to battle. Fraport Skyliners head coach Gordon Herbert had little choice, but to get another point guard for the injured Richard Williams and hauled in Justin Cobbs who was a much traveled rookie in his first two months having been shortly with 2016 Euroleague finalist Laboral Kutxa Vitoria (Spain-Liga Endesa), was the last cut of the NBA Charlotte Hornets and also briefly played with VEF Riga before coming to Frankfurt. Cobbs had the magic touch and instantly helped the team to winning six of eight games and turned around the season leading the team into the Eurochallenge final four and from last into the playoffs where the club bowed out to FC Bayern Munich. In Ulm the same kind of scenario surfaced this season as the club was battling intense injuries and head coach Thorsten Leibenath responded by bringing in ex NBA player Chris Babb who played at Iowa State(NCAA) with ex Ulm forward Will Clyburn and played 14 NBA games with the Boston Celtics. After being cut by the Golden State Warriors, Babb was available and like Cobbs last season snatched up in November. Like Frankfurt last season, ratiopharm Ulm got off the wrong side of the bed and started the season with a pathetic 2-7 record until November 21st where the Babb came on board and the Ulm season turned around rapidly as the club commenced to win 13 of their next 14 games putting them into great position to reach the playoffs. Babb had some huge games this season like his 29 points game in the 91-72 victory against FC Bayern Munich where he dropped seven three pointers or his huge scoring contributions in the wins against Braunschweig with 20 points and 21 points against the Giessen 46ers. Despite having played against the big boys of the NBA, the humbleness of Babb is as refreshing as the massive intense playoff spark that American Raymar Morgan has given the team. “I think that after we won our first few games, it was an overall confidence thing that helped the team in the winning streak. Guys started to fall into their roles and we learned what it took to win games”, stressed Chris Babb. Babb is still searching for his first professional title and already has gone a step further than Cobbs last season by reaching the Beko BBL semi-finals. However now Babb has the biggest challenge of the season trying to get past the Fraport Skyliners which has been an extreme difficult task for most teams. Even if Fraport Skyliner Jordan Theodore has won his first professional title this season, he is as hungry to win a second and will be a big hurdle to overcome for Babb and co.
The Fraport Skyliners Sweep Alba Berlin With A Shade Of Theodore Pink 87-66
For some Skyliner fans it may seem like an eternity since the last time the Fraport Skyliners defeated the mighty 8 time Beko BBL champion Alba Berlin in a five game series, but really it has only been six years ago where they produced the masterpiece that would zoom them into the Beko BBL finals. In that series, the club was led by guys like Mr ballerina Derrick Allen who had a stellar unstoppable game of 26 points to lead the way, but the club also was fortified with players like Dragon Labovic, Jimmy Mckinney and a certain shy city boy from Cincinnati, Ohio Quantez Robertson who had already made waves that season as a BBL slam dunk finalist and top notch defender that he would carry on to this very day. Six years later the Fraport Skyliners were back in their living room having Alba Berlin at the brink of elimination as everyone in the Fraport arena was broom ready and prepared to sweep head coach Sasa Obradovic and his twisted and dangerous looking body movements right out of the arena. In the first two contests, the 2000 Beko BBL cup champion Fraport Skyliners had played near to top notch basketball turning the Alba Berlin at times explosive offensive arsenal into a harmless attack that couldn´t even have scared the 2016 Fiba Europe Cup winner if they had dug out a Wendell Alexis, Marko Pesic and Mithat Demirel in their primes to help find a way to cut apart the annoying Frankfurt defense. Frankfurt held Alba Berlin to 65 points on average in the first two games and have had a sharp control on the dangerous guard duo of Jordan Taylor and Will Cherry in the playoffs like any woman would have to have on Charlie Sheen if she was seeing him. In the 71-65 game two victory in Berlin, the two American guards were held to 10 points combined 2/16 shooting. Frankfurt definitely learned from the first two encounters of the season where both Americans buried Frankfurt for 41 points combined and in the bitter semi-final cup loss in Munich let Jordan Taylor get the last laugh as he hit the game winning bucket. The week started off so excellent for the Fraport Skyliners and just got better and better as Quantez Robertson won the leagues best defensive player, a day later head coach Gordon Herbert was named best coach and nine hours later, Frankfurt was leading the best of five series 2-0 and Jordan Theodore could dream a little about the future where he may follow in the footsteps of his buddy Malcom Delaney who played in the Euroleague Final four on the weekend in Berlin. The perfect ending to the week would have been sending Alba Berlin back home winless in the playoffs and making a sweep party in the Fraport arena on Saturday night. Alba Berlin came back to Frankfurt needing to win as badly as the Fraport Skyliners needs everyone to remain healthy in order to have a legitimate chance of winning the Beko BBL title, but were blown out of the Fraport arena again as the Fraport Skyliners won easily with a shade of Theodore pink 87-66. After the glorious win and countless signed autographs that made the little hearts of kids content and whose eyes were beaming after the brief encounter with Theodore, the American had time to reflect on the win, series and his special shade of pink. “We played a lot more relaxed tonight whereas in game two we were too tight. We clicked on all cylinders moving the ball well and defending the way we know how and just got everything that we wanted. The key in this series was our good defense. We have been playing at a high level on defense all season long. Even when we struggle on offense as we did in game two, we can always rely on our defense. Our defense helps us stay in games when our offense isn´t on. Sweeping Alba Berlin means a lot because they had beat us twice this season. We knew that Alba Berlin would win the cup, because they had beat the best team us. We are on a mission right now. If we play defense and stay together, we will be fine. This was the first time I wore these pink shoes. I like to test a new pair each game. I know that some of the guys were looking strangely at me, but I may wear my strawberry pair in the next game. The pink looked nice on the court, fit well and the girls liked them”, smiled Englewood, New Jersey native Jordan Theodore. The season peak for Alba Berlin was three months ago when they won the cup in Munich, but just didn´t have that fire or self-confidence anymore and were an easy catch for the Fraport Skyliners to devour with ease. “Congrats to the Fraport Skyliers. They played very good basketball. They hit their shots very well in the first half and we didn´t do a good job using the mismatches. We never got into any kind of real game rhythm and did too much one on one play. We didn´t have the self-confidence or kick today”, stressed two time NCAA champion with Uconn Nils Giffey. “I don´t mind the pink shoes of Jordan, but it isn´t my style. But he has earned the right to wear whatever he wants to”, smiled Mr Canada Phillip Scrubb.
The Fraport Skyliners Crush Alba Berlin 83-64 to take 1-0 Playoff Lead
The few days after the Fraport Skyliners had won the 2016 Fiba Europe Cup title in Chalon France over Italian team Varese last weekend, the club had numerous appointments and honors to accept while savoring the moment. The biggest honor was being able to step out on the slim balcony at city hall in Frankfurt and see the sea of fans down below cheering on the team. Following official business where each player was able to sign the golden book, the team then went into the basement and celebrated with the fans with the beautiful silver Fiba Europe cup sitting on a small table for each person that wanted to to get a photo. Even if head coach Gordon Herbert seemed relaxed during the party with the fans, you knew that as much as he allowed his players to indulge in this big moment of being only the fourth team in the history of German basketball to have won an international club tournament, he was also thinking ahead to the weekend where the Beko BBl playoffs were to start. How often Herbert questioned in his mind during the two days of celebrating if his team could get back down in time of the playoffs was unknown, but knowing the immense competitive and perfectionist mindset, he must have been playing mind games with every type of scenario that could face him in game one. One guy who was as happy as a kid that just cleaned out a candy store after icing the title in Chalon was Englewood, New Jersey native Jordan Theodore who definitely showed after the final win that he has had his share of party experiences back home. However two days after the win, one could sense that he was getting itchy to get back on the court and take care of the next order of business the playoffs. With Frankfurt having had extra days to party, it was Alba Berlin that took part in a special training camp and still had that loss in Berlin on their minds a few weeks ago. The intense playoff rivalry that Berlin and Frankfurt took center stage as Alba Berlin won the last playoff battle in 2011 winning in 5 games in Frankfurt, but this season´s series had an extra appetizer with the duel of the two Jordan´s. Both Jordan Theodore and Jordan Taylor who belong to the top point guards in the Beko BBL as the latter had a 2-1 record head to head this season, but the Taylor still had semi bragging rights over Theodore as he had won the last minute shooting battle in the cup semi-final in Munich propelling Alba Berlin to the final while Frankfurt had to wait for that next opportunity while Theodore got him back a few weeks ago in Berlin with a 80-63 win to even the head to head battle at 2-1. In their fourth head to head meeting, it was Theodore that got the best of Taylor as he led the Fraport Skyliners with 19 points past Alba Berlin 83-64 as Alba Berlin and Taylor had massive difficulty all night long coming to terms with the Frankfurt aggressive defense. Important for the Fraport Skyliners was that the club was able to get down from their Fiba Europe Cup title and get back to business with the Mission Beko BBL title 2016. “We got revenge on Alba Berlin a few weeks ago, but Taylor has the cup trophy. Coach preached this week that we have to stay professional. The last thing that we wanted to do was serve up an egg in game one. We had fun for two days and on Wednesday we were focused at the task at hand. We knew that it would be a tough game. Alba Berlin is a gritty team that plays physical, gets rebounds and loose balls. We were ready for them and left it all on the court. I was focused 100% and since it´s my first playoffs, I want to show the people that I can play. Every guy contributed and when we play as a collective unit then we are hard to beat”, stressed Fraport Skyliners guard Jordan Theodore. Alba Berlin will have to go back to the drawing board, because if they don´t find a way to score more consistently then their summer could already start next weekend. “Frankfurt hit a lot of shots and there wasn´t a lot that we could do. We didn´t get consistent stops on defense. They wanted it more than we did”, stressed Alba Berlin guard Rob Lowery.
The Miles Basketball Minute: 2016 Beko BBL Quarterfinal Playoff Preview Fraport Skyliners-Alba Berlin 3-0
It isn´t always easy to shift gears going from one extreme to the other, but some teams have that ability to go from being at the top to having to refocus and get mentally ready for the next task at hand. A team like the Brose Baskets Bamberg for a time a few years ago were able to win cup and league titles in the same season with ease the way Fraport Skyliner MIke Morrison can erupt in the paint area with dunks like a lost Lion from the Tampa, Florida Zoo does when his evening meal is a few minutes late. From a span from 2009-2012 the Brose Baskets Bamberg were able to accomplish this feat with bravery winning the double league and cup and always being able to hold that unbelievable hungriness that you only see with top teams. The Fraport Skyliners don´t have that club history like Bamberg has as it took them 12 years to win that next title after their last one in 2004, whereas Bamberg has won 10 titles in that span which could make even the most calm Freak city fan a bit full. However with the Fraport Skyliners just having won the 2016 Fiba Europe Cup title in Chalon, France over Italian team Varese, they didn´t have a few months to recover and then have to play the playoffs, but actually had only 6 days to get off their momentary peak and be ready to be plucking mode as next on the menu are the Albatross bird or otherwise known as top team Alba Berlin. Of course when a team like the Fraport Skyliners have fought and played a superb season in the Fiba cup Europe Cup where they went 18-1, it is only normal that they celebrate with style. Celebrating the high class way started with the normal post game clowning around with the trophy and medals and Frankfurt might have even started a new trend with posing the selfie´s not only with the hardware, but also being caught in the netting of the rim the way a flounder is in a fiserman´s net off the coast of Cape Cod. The partying went on in the the night until morning where it continued with the train ride home where the last thing that was on anybody´s mind at that juncture was how to control Jordan Taylor the following weekend. Upon arrival in Frankfurt, the team had a gathering at a local TV station in the evening where they could tell for the 100th time what it felt like to have won an international title. The next day followed further team appointments and an official party at night with the fans where they all met and marched to city hall together. After two days of doing the title rounds, Fraport Skyliners head coach Gordon Herbert had the first scheduled practice on tap for Wednesday giving the team three days to prepare for the very hungry Alba Berlin team that had scheduled a short training camp during the time where Frankfurt was telling stories how they wrote history while a Jordan Taylor might have been studying film on how to control a Jordan Theodore when he makes his almost unstoppable speeding to the rim. The question is now can the Fraport Skyliners be able to get back to the basketball office again on the ground instead of being in basketball heaven sipping champagne from the Fiba Europe Cup trophy? If Gordon Herbert needed advice, he probably could have dialed up Chris Fleming in Denver or Jordan Theodore who seems to know every living basketball player or at least someone who knows a guy that could give him the number of ex Bamberg guard Casey Jacobsen in Phoenix. At least these two Bamberg legends should be able to give the guiding words for them How to refocus successfully again.
Jordan Theodore Felt Take Over Time And Leads The Fraport Skyliners To 2016 Fiba Europe Cup Title Over Varese 66-62
After the hard fought and down and dirty Fraport Skyliners 59-56 victory against Russian team Enisey heaving them into the Fiba Europe Cup final where the only thing missing had been a Delroy James vs Danilo Barthel stare down in the paint area, Jordan Theodore was stretching after the duel when suddenly a media representative cleared up the Englewood, New Jersey native that he had seen him play when the good spirited point guard had played with Antalya Buyuksehir Belediye (Turkey-TBL). After some small chit chat, both had smiles on their faces for the short break down of memory lane. It had been another normal day at the office for Theodore even if it took him and the club some deep soul searching in the fourth quarter to grind their way into the final. In his first three seasons as a professional in Europe, Theodore had very solid stats, but in the end that didn´t mean anything as he always played on losing teams and went home early to Englewood, New Jersey to catch the NBA playoffs. However this season with the Fraport Skyliners everything has changed as his scoring, assist and steal rate is back up to his rookie season, but the massive difference this season is that he has become a real leader for a winning team and MVP candidate in the German Beko BBL. And a little side note, he has dominated not only the country league and been consistent, but also belonged to the top guards in the FIba Europe Cup competition, the first time in his career that he has played in an international club tournament. He also finally has broken out of his outside shooting slump as he is near 40% while he shot only 25% in his first three seasons. Plus all season long he has matched up against the top point guards in both competitions and looked real good. In the FIba Europe Cup, he battled against guys like Thaddus Mcfadden, Earl Calloway, Mark Lyons and Tony Taylor and stepped off the court as the winner. In his quest to win his first professional title in Chalon, France in the Fiba Europe Cup, the pride and joy of Englewood, New Jersey had to face one last dirty confrontation not with one, but against two strong ex NBA point guards Maalik Wayns and Chris Wright who he also knew well from the NCAA with Villanova and Georgetown as he had played against them with Seton Hall. Theodore put on that last mean Fiba Europe Cup face of the season and went to battle for the title with the Fraport Skyliners and really had to do some serious soul searching and just break out of his shell in crunch-time as he had been taken out of the game well for three quarters, but when it counted most, he stepped up once again winning the battle against the guards of the opponent and led his team to the title. “We didn´t play our brand of basketball in the first three quarters. They played harder and wanted it more. When we were down by nine points after three, my teammates told me not to worry that I would pick up my game. We have played team basketball all season long and showed it at the end. Morrison and Robertson picked it up and we got tougher as a team. We just didn´t want to lose and I knew that we would come back. This is my first title in Europe. It feels so amazing. It is great when hard work pays off. I am so excited. It´s great for the city of Frankfurt and I know Englewood is tearing it up now”, stressed Englewood, New Jersey native Jordan Theodore. Italian team Varese played spectacular for 30 minutes and pretty much gave the Fraport Skyliners a taste of their own medicine playing their brand of defense and beating them with their kind of ball movement, but just couldn´t hold down the fort for 40 minutes as Frankfurt made that last amazing run. “I am so disappointed. We were so close and too lose it like that at the end was very tough. They are a good team and played great. Congrats to Frankfurt”; added ex Philadelphia 76er Maalik Wayns.
German Hoops 