NBLC Alumni: Kyle Johnson

6'5

Guard

From Scarborough, Ontario

Tenure: 2014-15, 2016-2019

2xNBLC Champion

When making the case for signing Kyle Johnson, any team would have just have to look at his track record, which speaks for itself and includes a highly successful tenure in the NBL Canada.

Johnson graduated from West Hill Collegiate Institute in Toronto in 2007 and joined the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds in the NCAA Division 1. In his first year with his new team, he averaged 10.3 points per game and was named to the Northeast Conference All-Rookie team.

As a senior, he won the Northeast Conference title, which also earned the Blackbirds a spot in the Division 1 tournament, where they eliminated in round one to the North Carolina Tar Heels. At the end of his time with LIU Brooklyn he set a record for most games played (124) and is second in the team's history for career three-pointers with 240.

Johnson's professional career began in 2011, where he played the season with Ilysiakos in Greece and APOEL Nicosia in Cyprus. The following season he averaged 8.1 points and 3.4 rebounds in 19 games for Montegranaro in Italy. He remained in Italy for the 2013-14 season, starting out with Ferentino and finishing with Vanoli.

The 2014-15 season marked his NBL Canada debut. Joining the Brampton A’s, he played 19 games and started in 14 in his first season, averaging 13.7 points and 4.8 rebounds on the way. He left the team part-way through the year and returned to Italy to play for Pallacanestro Biella and the next season averaging 9.6 points 3.5 rebounds for another Italian club, Junior Casale.

Johnson made a return to the NBL Canada in 2016, signing with the London Lightning. February 4th 2017 saw him set a record, both for the Lightning franchise and in his own career, of 51 points in the team's 146-102 defeat of the Moncton Miracles. He went on to play 46 total games on the season and help take London to their record-breaking third league title – a final result he and the team repeated in the 2017-18 season. He averaged a career-best 13.8 points in 46 games played in his first season with 13.4 per game at the end of 2019.

After appearing in twenty games for French team Boulounge the following season, he put in a brief stint with St. John's Edge before moving on to the Icelandic Úrvalsdeild, in-between reaching the CEBL finals with the Fraser Valley Bandits.

In addition to his domestic records, Johnson has been a cornerstone player for the British national team for more than a decade.

He was first named to the team for the EuroBasket 2011 tournament, where Great Britain won two and lost three. The following year he appeared for the team on their most prestigious stage – the 2012 summer Olympics in London. The hosts were able to get within one point of Spain and scored a 90-58 win over China, but ending the tournament with a 1-4 record they failed to advance past the group stage.

At Eurobasket 2013, Johnson scored 22 points for Great Britain in their opening game, a win against Israel. The team followed up this win with another over Germany, but losses to France, Belgium and Ukraine would again see them eliminated at the group. Johnson rejoined the team for EuroBasket 2017, which the team exited winless.