Sydney Next Star Alex Toohey has been recognised for his exceptional performances in NBL1 East overnight, named the competition’s Youth Player of the Year.

Toohey played a total of 16 games for the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence and helped lead the side to a ladder-leading 20-2 record across the regular season, averaging 17.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game in the competition.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">????? ?????? ?? ??? ???? | ???? ?????? ?<br><br>Introducing your WINNER for the 2023 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL1East?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL1East</a> Men’s YPOTY, the Centre of Excellence’s Alex Toohey! ?<br><br>The candidates were nominated &amp; voted on by conference coaches ?‍?<br><br>Congratulations to our winner! ??‍?? <a href="https://t.co/jkBQKztb58">pic.twitter.com/jkBQKztb58</a></p>&mdash; ???? ???? (@NBL1East) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL1East/status/1688850213400936448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 8, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

He has also been nominated for the competition's league MVP.

The 19-year-old will hit the NBL floor as the third Next Star in the history of the Sydney Kings, following Brian Bowen II in NBL19 and Makur Maker in NBL22.