The Board and all those who are involved with the City of Sydney Basketball Association (CSBA) would like to congratulate our President Mr Andrew Lazaris on being named in the Australia Day Honours List and awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for Services to Sport in Australia.

Andrew Lazaris has been involved in the sport of Basketball for over 45 years. He commenced playing basketball for Woolloomooloo Playground where the first ever basketball competitions in NSW commenced. These competitions were conducted by the City of Sydney Council and were played on outdoor courts. From this beginning Andrew’s love and dedication to basketball grew. He played for several different clubs and went on to represent NSW at Combined High School tournaments in both basketball and soccer.

Andrew played most of his early basketball with 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 in 1980. Andrew became President of the CSBA in 1985 a position he has held every year since then. The CSBA under Andrew’s leadership has become one of the strongest and most successful basketball associations in NSW.

Andrew was heavily involved financially in supporting the newly formed Sydney Supersonics (now the Kings) so that the CSBA could have a team in the National Basketball League. Andrew was also the voluntary Manager of this team. Being manager of a team in a National Competition involves a huge commitment of time and effort which quite often goes unrewarded.

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. Andrew was also team manager during this time. This consortium then successfully managed and ran the Sydney Kings for 18 years.

As well as Andrew’s involvement with the Kings and the National League he continued his involvement with the CSBA. Looking to the future, Andrew and his team at the CSBA knew that unless the CSBA actually owned the stadium at Alexandria the Association would not have the ability to be able to expand their facilities. With this in mind Andrew negotiated for 2 years with Basketball NSW who were then the owners of Alexandria stadium until a price was agreed upon. Andrew then organized the finance for the Association so that we were able to go ahead with acquiring the stadium. This achievement was even more remarkable given that many Basketball Associations including Basketball NSW were in financial difficulties at the time.

During Andrew’s 30 years as President of CSBA he has worked tirelessly in the administration of our sport. Andrew along with his other Board Members have created a wonderful environment for players from all backgrounds to experience basketball at its best at the not for profit CSBA.

Andrew loves sport and has volunteered his time to help the particular sports in which he is involved. But Andrew is a genuinely generous person committed to helping others. Andrew runs a function centre in Lakemba, The Haldon, and over the years has made this facility available to be used to raise funds for numerous charitable organizations. The most notable of these being the work he has done for the North Rocks Blind School. In fact over the years, Andrew has raised close to $400,000 for the facilities at the Blind School. This generosity and hard work was acknowledged when he was awarded the NSW Department of Education Award for Outstanding Assistance and Contribution to North Rocks Blind School. Andrew’s work in this area is ongoing and he is always happy to hold a function to help others.

Although Andrew’s most noticeable commitment has been to basketball, Andrew has also been a major contributor to other sports, in particular soccer. Andrew is a very prominent member of the Greek Community in Sydney and his contributions to the Greek community has also been recognized.

Andrew’s commitments to the community and to sport have been recognized by many organizations and include the following awards:

• Life Member City of Sydney Basketball Association
• Citizen of the Year- City of South Sydney Council (services to Community).
• Australian Sports Medal (Queen Elizabeth Award for contribution to sport in Australia 2000).
• Basketball NSW Long Service Award in 2006
• Inducted into Greek Australian Sports Hall of Fame "Honour Roll" (Contribution to Soccer & Basketball in Australia for a minimum 30 years).
• Life Member of Sydney Olympic Football Club,
• Life Member Stanmore Hawks Football Club,
• Life Member Great Alexander Football Club.
• Former Patron for NSW Police Rugby League.
• NSW Department of Education Award for Outstanding Assistance and Contribution to North Rocks Blind School.
• Awarded "Number One Supporter" of Friends of the Blind School North Rocks.

As can be seen by the above list of awards that have been bestowed upon Andrew he is an outstanding individual with tireless energy which he devotes to many worthwhile causes. 

Currently Andrew and the Board of the CSBA are involved in negotiations with the City of Sydney Council regarding the building of a 4 court facility adjacent to the CSBA stadium. Andrew’s input into these negotiations is invaluable given the depth of his experience and knowledge in this area.

On behalf of everyone at Comets once again congratulations to Andrew – well done and well deserved.