Basketball Journalists’ Association

The Basketball Journalists’ Association was formed as the demand for coverage grew due to the sudden emergence of the Great Britain national team and the increasing  number of games being staged in the UK by the NBA. 

With the coverage of the sport growing, and the Great Britain’s men and women’s teams competing at London 2012, there was suddenly a healthy amount of sport writers from the UK that were going to cover the basketball tournament at the Olympics.

The BJA assisted with the media accreditation for many UK-based journalists at the London Olympics. This was a battle because the majority of applications were denied at first due to a lack of Olympic basketball coverage. 

From there, the BJA has and continues to assist many sports writers with issues such as media contacts for basketball events, press row seating arrangements and various other issues.

London 2012 (Mansoor Ahmed)

The BJA meets every year at the British Basketball League Playoff finals at the O2 Arena in London and also has yearly awards including the Player, Coach, British Player and International British Player of the Year where the winners are announced before the league finale.

Follow on Twitter at @BasketballBJA

Contacts
Secretary/Chairman: John Hobbs
Email: john@talkbasket.net
Tel: 07940711770

Vice-Chairman: Rob Dugdale
Email: rob.dugdale@bbc.co.uk

BJA Player of the Year
2011-12 Joe Chapman (Newcastle Eagles)
2012-13  Drew Sullivan (Leicester Riders)
2013-14 Will Creekmore (Worcester Wolves)
2014-15 Charles Smith (Newcastle Eagles)
2015-16 Drew Sullivan (Leicester Riders)
2016-17 Rahmon Fletcher (Newcastle Eagles)
2017-18 Jaysean Paige (Newcastle Eagles)
2018-19 Justin Robinson (London Lions)
2019-20 Parker Jackson-Cartwright (Cheshire Phoenix)
2020-21 Geno Crandall (Leicester Riders)
2021-22 Geno Crandall (Leicester Riders)

BJA Coach of the Year
2011-12 Fab Flournoy (Newcastle Eagles)
2012-13  Rob Paternostro (Leicester Riders)
2013-14 Fab Flournoy (Newcastle Eagles)
2014-15 Andreas Kapoulas (Bristol Flyers)
2015-16  Rob Paternostro (Leicester Riders)
2016-17  Rob Paternostro (Leicester Riders)
2017-18 Creon Raftopoulos (Surrey Scorchers)
2018-19 Vince Macaulay (London Lions)
2019-20 Vincent Lavandier (Glasgow Rocks)
2020-21 Rob Paternostro (Leicester Riders)
2021-22 Rob Pasternostro (Leicester Riders)

BJA British Player of the Year (Pete Jacques award)
2011-12 Andy Thomson (Newcastle Eagles)
2012-13 Drew Sullivan (Leicester Riders)
2013-14 James Jones (Manchester Giants)
2014-15 Darius Defoe (Newcastle Eagles)
2015-16 Jamell Anderson (Leicester Riders)
2016-17 Kieron Achara (Glasgow Rocks)
2017-18  Justin Robinson (London Lions)
2018-19 Jordan Spencer (London Lions)
2019-20 Ovie Soko (London Lions)
2020-21 Ashley Hamilton (Plymouth Raiders)
2021-22 Patrick Whelan (Leicester Riders)

BJA International British Player of the Year (Syd Lipski award)
2011-12 N/A
2012-13 Luol Deng (Cleveland Cavaliers)
2013-14 Jo Leedham (Bourges)
2014-15 Myles Hesson (Bremerhaven)
2015-16 Jo Leedham (Bourges)
2016-17 Luke Nelson (UC Irvine)
2017-18 Ovie Soko (UCAM Murcia)
2018-19 Gabe Olaseni (Wurzburg)
2019-20 Jo Leedham-Warner (Orman Genclik)
2020-21 Temi Fagbenle (Reyer Venezia)
2021-22 Karlie Samuelson (Perfumerias Avenida)

BJA Women’s Player of the Year
2018-19
  Catherine Carr (Sevenoaks Suns)
2019-20  Jasmine Joyner (Nottingham Wildcats)
2020-21 Kennedy Leonard (London Lions)
2021-22 Jo Leedham-Warner (London Lions)