VThe Fraport Skyliners basketball fans really didn’t see much in the preseason of Matt Mobley. The Shooting Guard’s manageable final balance only showed a good 13 minutes of deployment time. Because his promising debut on March 7th in the away win in Giessen (90:82) also meant his abrupt end of work. Due to the corona pandemic, the Bundesliga main round was canceled after the 21st matchday for the Skyliners. The season was not continued until June with the created exceptional format “Final tournament for the German championship” in Munich, in which Mobley did not want to participate.
He shied away from the long flight back from the United States to Frankfurt because he knew many people in his personal environment who had been infected with the corona virus. The American’s fear of becoming infected was too great. Skyliners head coach Sebastian Gleim accepted the decision, although he could have used Mobley.
This Wednesday (7 p.m.) Mobley is returning with the Frankfurters to the East Sports Hall for the Hessenderby in Giessen. This time with the jersey number one, at the beginning of March he wore the two once. In the second attempt – Frankfurt brought the 26-year-old American back in mid-September – the shooter showed from a distance with spectacular throws what had already been indicated in his short-term engagement in March: With 18.6 points per game, he is now after seven games not only the top scorer of the Skyliners, he is currently also the third best thrower in the first division. Mobley scored 19 of 38 three-point throws in December and 33 of 35 for free throws. His 31 points on Saturday in the 103: 98 win after extra time over Braunschweig were his second-best career value; only in Turkey for Sigortam.net ITU Istanbul there were four more.
“Throw the ball into the basket”
No wonder that Gleim describes the position Mobley plays in as “throwing the ball in the basket”. The 1.93-meter-tall professional has already fulfilled this task in Belgium at Charleroi (16.5 points per game) and with the French at Pau-Lacq-Orthez (9.0 points in six games). At the Skyliners, Mobley is getting better and better because his pent-up demand in terms of game understanding and fitness is getting smaller every day. For three months, the player from Worcester, Massachusetts, had not been able to practice in any sports hall in his home country during the Corona crisis. So throwing training in particular fell flat for him.
But ball dribbling was also neglected. Mobley first had to find his rhythm again in Germany and be physically brought up to the requirements of the Bundesliga. At the moment he thinks he’s around 80 percent in terms of his physique. Nevertheless, he is there at the crucial moment, like in extra time against Braunschweig, when he scored 13 points in five-minute overtime with three successful three-point throws. “The Braunschweig people always defended me in the same way – and I always scored in the same way,” said Mobley, grinning at his hussar piece. If the opponent lets him go, the American is like a point machine to perfection.
With the active support of Mobley, the Skyliners are no longer the weakest offensive team in the league. For Gleim, the “ball movement” plays a central role in the sporting upswing. “We try to get our players into the best spots,” says the coach. As a target player in attack, Mobley is the Skyliners’ main shooter. He is fully in the process of making the most of his “second chance” in Frankfurt.
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