Andrew Lazaris OAM has been entrenched in basketball for over 45 years and in that time has achieved a great amount of respect and esteem from some of the games elite.
Andrew started his career in basketball through humble beginnings as a teenager when he first started playing for Woolloomooloo Playground where the first-ever basketball competitions in NSW commenced. From this beginning Andrew’s love and dedication to basketball grew immensely and went on to represent NSW at Combined High School tournaments for both basketball and soccer.
Lazaris played most of his early basketball with the Eastern Suburbs Basketball Association and played an instrumental role in the amalgamation of Eastern Suburbs Basketball Association and Sydney Basketball Association to form the new City of Sydney Basketball Association (CSBA) in 1980. He also became President of the CSBA in 1985, a position he has held every year since then.
He was also heavily involved financially in supporting the newly formed City of Sydney Astronauts/Sydney Supersonics in 1979 (reformed now as the Sydney Kings) so that the City of Sydney Basketball Association would have a team in the National Basketball League.
In 1985, Andrew became part of the first-ever private consortium of a sporting team in Australia. This consortium which included the CSBA then went on to own and manage the team which became the Sydney Kings in 1988, for more than 18 years.
As well as Andrew’s involvement with the Sydney Kings and the National Basketball League he continued his involvement at the grassroots level at CSBA and still remains heavily active within the Basketball NSW community today. He was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 (Queen Elizabeth Award for contribution to sport in Australia) and the Basketball NSW Long Service Award in 2006. In 2015, he was also a well deserving recipient of the Order of Australia Medal for his long list of services to basketball and the community.
Andrew’s contributions to basketball in Australia, NSW and the City of Sydney Basketball Association are second to none, and is richly deserved to be inducted into the 2019 Hall of Fame Class.
2019 Hall of Fame
Date: 2nd November, 2019
Time: 6.30pm for a 7:00pm Start
Location: Rydges Mount Panorama Bathurst, 1 Conrod Straight, Bathurst NSW 2795
Tickets: http://bit.ly/HOF2019Tickets
If you have any questions regarding the 2019 HOF or to purchase a table, please contact Elyse Hicks via email elyse.hicks@bnsw.com.au