In the world of basketball, The Basketball Tournament, which carries a multi-million dollar prize, "is just like a hobby or something extra for guys,” D.J. Kennedy said in a Deadspin about the tournament his team Overseas Elite has won four years in a row. There's something legendary about the tournament though. It's the fact that two kids from Pittsburgh's Hill District ran a train through great competition filled with former NBA veterans and collegiate superstars every year to accumulate a 25 win and zero loss record along with $7 million in prize money. 

DeAndre Kane and D.J. Kennedy have a reputation in the 'Burgh for playing championship ball. In 2007, their Schenley Spartans team won the quad-A State title with help from University of Pittsburgh standout and former San Antonio Spur DeJuan Blair. At Marshall University and Iowa State University, Kane earned weekly and yearly awards consistently until he graduated. He was the Big 12 conference tournament MVP in 2014, and then he went on to bounce the North Carolina Tar Heels out of that year's March Madness NCAA Tournament with a clutch drive to the hoop beating the buzzer. Kane's Maccabi Tel Aviv team won the competitive Israeli Basketball Premier League this year. For Kennedy, his defensive and scoring consistency at St. John's University carried him into the NBA briefly. More impressively, Kennedy's been the top scorer of two separate European basketball leagues in 2015 and 2018. He's been The Basketball Tournament MVP in the same years too.  Kane and Kennedy's prestige may not be mainstream like that of an NBA superstar's, but their legend is battle-tested as they repeatedly rise to the occasion.

This Saturday, August 18, 2018, appreciate the men's achievements, especially as they celebrate more T.B.T. rings (4 for Kennedy and 3 for Kane), and come out to their 3-on-3 basketball tournament and community event giving away backpacks and school supplies at Ammons Recreation Center in Pittsburgh's Hill District from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Turn up with the fellas that night at V Lounge.

Ammons Recreation Center

2217 Bedford Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15219

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V Lounge

2625 Penn Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15222