Basketball Legends Host 3-on-3 Tournament in Pittsburgh's Hill District

DeAndre Kane (left) and D.J. Kennedy (right) who won the Pennsylvania state basketball title in 2007 have won The Basketball Tournament four times.

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

Schenley High School Memorabilia

Three years ago, Hannibal Hopson hopped up on the ledge of a construction dumpster and climbed through the broken bathroom window in the first floor of what was his Schenley High School. The facility looked different. There weren't lockers or functioning classrooms with desks. There were no school club flyers on the walls. No students or teachers in sight. Instead, the floors were dusty with wood residue from sawing and sanding. A bulldozer sat in the hallway. Hopson pushed past wires that hung down from the ceiling. Creeks and screech echoed through the hollow building. The basketball court that was home to former Pennsylvania State Champion Spartans had cracks in it. People began picking the wood off the court. Concrete scraps from the deconstruction project were thrown in the empty pool. The construction workers littered their lunch scraps in the showers. They were turning Schenley High School into an apartment complex, effectively displacing inner-city students who called the place their alma mater for 95 years.

Now, the Schenley Apartments mock alumni and the history that came from Schenley High School.

In an attempt to memorialize the legendary school, Hopson and InTheRough partner to offer memorabilia to celebrate what once was. We created a two-page magazine spread in the latest issue of Pittsburgh-based EW Mag publication. The spread features photos from the night Hopson and ITR explored the empty school three years ago. Photos and words begin to comment on the gentrifying aspect that the apartments imposed on the Schenley community. Additionally, authentic Schenley gym shorts pair with the reading material. The Champion mesh shorts feature a "Schenley" font taken from the basketball jerseys of the 2007 Spartans who won the state championship thanks to legends like DeJuan Blair, DeAndre Kane and D.J. Kennedy.

The magazine spread and shorts combine to create the Schenley High School Memorabilia Collection. Available are 10. More shorts will be available only after the combo sells out. The 11 photos from the excursion around abandoned Schenley High School will release at a later date.

Shop the collection here.

[Shorts model Don Bell & photographs by Alex Young]