More Than Basketball.

Known to many as the “Bishop of Brixton,” Jimmy wrote the mission that still guides everything we do today, alongside Courtney Griffiths:

“To advance the education of young people resident in Brixton and surrounding areas by providing programmes for physical recreation in order to develop their physical, mental and spiritual capacity, that they may grow to full maturity as individuals, and as members of society, and that their lives may be improved both on the court and in the wider areas of life.”

That mission is why, decades later, we still measure success in people, not trophies.

From South Sudan to Brixton to the NBA. Luol Deng escaped war, landed in South London and learned the game under Jimmy at the Rec, going on to become a two-time NBA All-Star, Great Britain’s captain and one of the most successful British players in history.

“I’ve never worked as hard as I did in Brixton,” he says. “I am who I am because that was part of me.” He has never stopped crediting where it started, and never stopped giving back to it.

“Supporting Brixton is not something that I had to ever sit and think about – That is home, it is family. Jimmy Rogers was more than a coach to many of us, he was a father-figure and he created a family atmosphere for many of us who remain brothers and sisters to this day, an unbreakable bond that the future generations should experience and grow in.”Luol Deng

The club’s development programme has produced some of the most successful professional players in British basketball history: Luol Deng, Ronnie Baker, Stedroy Baker, Matthew Bryan-Amaning, Justin Robinson, Andrea Congreaves, Andrew Bailey, Ajou Deng, Eric Boateng, Matthew Ryder, Junior Williams, Ugonna Onyekwe, Ogo Adegboye, Emiko Etete, Iyona Patsy-Fearon and Leo Rogers, and the list goes on.

Topcats alumni also include top lawyers, international performers, a TV presenter, academics, directors, entrepreneurs and musicians.

Visitors have included HRH Prince Charles, Princess Diana, Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, Robert Horry, Lennox Lewis, Ian Wright, Kate Hoey MP and Dr Cllr Jacqui Dyer, proof that when you build something real, people notice.

Jimmy met a young Michael Jordan at the NCAA Final Four and got a promise out of him: if Jordan ever made it to London, he’d stop by Topcats. Jordan kept his word after his NBA Rookie of the Year season, the first of many NBA stars to walk through our doors.