When the Americans Quantez Robertson and Rasheed Moore arrived at Frankfurt Airport in excellent health this Monday, the two basketball professionals from the Fraport Skyliners have cleared the first hurdle on the way back to their workplaces. That means that your test for the coronavirus in the United States was negative.
Like the new Frankfurt Jon Axel Gudmundsson from Iceland, Robertson and Moore cannot start the season preparation immediately this Tuesday. Because all three have to undergo another, then “two-stage test” for Covid-19 in Frankfurt. “I hope that your quarantine will be shortened and that you will be able to start training on Thursday, Friday after negative tests,” says Skyliners head coach Sebastian Gleim.
The 36-year-old is now a little behind his first season as head coach, which he classifies as a “very special” one due to the corona pandemic. After the exhausting time with the final tournament in Munich in June, where Frankfurt reached the quarter-finals, he “needed a few days to come down and switch to recovery mode”.
But: In the coming weeks and months, everyone involved will again be faced with major challenges. Hardly anything is as the basketball business was used to. “A great cloud of obscurity hovers over the Skyliners. Do we play or do we not play? When do we play? And with or without a spectator? ”- that’s how Gleim sums up the currently prevailing uncertainty in words, which should be“ faded out ”as best it can. After all, professional basketball is currently targeting two fixed points: From mid-October onwards, the new cup winner will be played in several tournaments before the Bundesliga season is scheduled to start on November 6th. In order to keep the risk of infection in the ranks of the Skyliners as low as possible, “the processes are deliberately kept small,” says Gleim. Everyone was encouraged to focus their lives on the family, the sports hall and the only necessary private activities. “We pay maximum attention not to become infected,” says Gleim.
In terms of sport, the new round could also be a show of strength for the Frankfurters. Big jumps will probably not be possible for the financially limited Skyliners. “As of today, we will fight in every game to win the game at all.” There will be no game “that we win with an average performance,” warns Gleim. His team must “always deliver over 100 percent – maybe even a tad more than in the past season,” he clarifies. The current line-up includes eleven players, four of which are talented players who are largely inexperienced in the Bundesliga.
With the 35-year-old captain Robertson, there is only one professional in the squad who has been a recognized leader in Frankfurt for years. Former national player Akeem Vargas has joined league rivals Göttingen; the young and aspiring center Leon Kratzer has moved to Bonn. With him, the Skyliners lost an important building block in their future plans. What is unusual: The Hessians currently only employ two Americans. Players like winger Moore, who comes from the second division, and build-up player Gudmundsson have no Bundesliga experience yet. And the 29-year-old returnees Konstantin Konga and Richard Freudenberg both fight for the connection after injuries.
The existing line-up therefore still has question marks and gaps – especially on the superstructure and center positions. “We now have a very broad German base and will take a lot of time with further new signings,” announced managing director Gunnar Wöbke. In times of great uncertainty due to the corona pandemic, Skyliners operations must be run with caution – Gleim knows that too. “You have to weigh up economically how much risk you are taking now,” says Gleim. “It is important that we have created a good foundation.”
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