Former Schenley teammates join forces
Kennedy, Kane earn $2M first-place prize
Tri-State Sports & News Service
D.J. Kennedy and DeAndre Kane have been close since they were little kids growing up in the Hill District.
“We’re like best of friends. We’ve known each other since we were 6 or 7 years old,” Kennedy said.
That in itself was a good reason for Kane to join Kennedy on a basketball team this summer when the latter reached out to his former Schenley teammate.
But really, there were two million reasons why the two reunited.
Teaming up with each other in a tournament for the first time since winning a PIAA title in 2007, Kennedy and Kane helped Overseas Elite win the championship of The Basketball Tournament and with it the winner-take-all prize of $2 million. Both players walked away with $174,000. The championship game was played Aug. 2 at Fordham University and televised on ESPN.
“It’s great, man. Especially something like this where you need to have chemistry. For me, I knew what he brought to the team. I knew how he played. It just all fit in. I was glad I was able to bring him on,” said Kennedy, who scored a team-high 18 points in the final and was named to the all-tournament team.
The Basketball Tournament is a single-elimination tournament that included many former college stars and some ex-NBA players. A good number of participants, Kennedy and Kane included, play internationally. It was the second title in a row for Kennedy, who guided Overseas Elite to the championship last year when the prize was $1 million.
Since concluding their college careers — Kennedy at St. John’s and Kane at Iowa State — the two did play together briefly on a team in Russia. But this marked the first time they joined forces in a tournament since Schenley took home the PIAA Class AAAA title nine years ago. Kennedy, DeJuan Blair and Jamaal “Onion” Bryant were seniors on that team. Kane was a junior. As great of an accomplishment as that was, being awarded a trophy and rings didn’t quite compare to the recent six-figure