Björn Kristjánsson (born 4 November 1992) is an Icelandic former

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player. Over his career, he has won the Icelandic championship with KR four times and the Icelandic Basketball Cup once.

Playing career

Björn came up through the junior ranks of KR where he started his senior career in 2009. After a

journeyman A journeyman, journeywoman, or journeyperson is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that fie ...

career during his first years, where he played for five teams in 5 years, Björn returned to KR in 2014 and helped the team win back-to-back national championships. In October 2015, he was involved in a controversy after KR's chairman accused both

Njarðvík Njarðvík () is a town in southwestern Iceland, on the peninsula of Reykjanes. As of 2009, its population was 4,400. History In 1995 it merged with the town of Keflavík and the village of Hafnir to form the new municipality of Reykjanesbær. T ...

and ÍR to have approached him while he was still under contract with KR which both the teams denied. After the 2015–2016 season, Björn signed with Njarðvík. After spending the 2016–2017 season with

, Björn returned to KR in June 2017. With him, KR won its 6th consecutive national championship in 2018. During the 2019 Úrvalsdeild finals, Björn was a big catalyst in KR's victory in game four which forced a decisive game five. In game 5, KR won its 7th consecutive national championship. Due to a lingering hip injury, Björn was expected to miss the start of the 2019–20 season. In January 2020, KR announced that Björn would undergo a surgery and miss the rest of the season. In three games, he averaged 8.0 points and 2.0 assists per game. On 22 November 2022, Björn announced his retirement from basketball due to a kidney disease that would require a

kidney transplant Kidney transplant or renal transplant is the organ transplant of a kidney into a patient with end-stage kidney disease (ESRD). Kidney transplant is typically classified as deceased-donor (formerly known as cadaveric) or living-donor transplantati ...

Personal life

Björn's brother is basketball player Oddur Rúnar Kristjánsson. In 2017, Björn was diagnosed with a degenerative

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blo ...

disease. In 2022, the disease had reached a stage where a kidney transplant was needed. Initially cleared to play the first half of the season, the disease limited him to two games and forcing him to announce his retirement in November 2022.

References

External links

Profile
at

Icelandic Basketball Association The Icelandic Basketball Association (''Icelandic:Körfuknattleikssamband Íslands - KKÍ'') is the national governing body of basketball in Iceland and is a member of the continental association FIBA Europe and the global International Basketba ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kristjansson, Bjorn 1992 births Living people Bjorn Kristjansson Bjorn Kristjansson Bjorn Kristjansson Bjorn Kristjansson Shooting guards Bjorn Kristjansson