Since they were kids, Schenley alumni D.J. Kennedy and DeAndre Kane have felt at home on the basketball court.

From winning a state championship in high school to creating a career for themselves overseas on the hardwood, basketball has taken the duo a lot of places.

But over the past five years, these childhood friends have made a name for themselves at The Basketball Tournament, a single-elimination, bracket-style tournament with a winner-take-all cash prize every summer.

This year’s tournament will take place at Nationwide Arena in Columbus between July 4-14 and players will be quarantined throughout the tournament.

As a part of the Overseas Elite team, which consists of a mixture of players who played a majority of their careers abroad, Kennedy and Kane have won the tournament four out of the past five years.

“It’s always fun, just playing with your friend that you grew up with, won a lot of championships with, someone you knew your whole life and is one of your best friends,” Kane said. “It’s fun winning money in the summer with one of your childhood friends. That’s always a good thing.”

Kennedy was a part of the first Overseas Elite team that won the tournament in 2015. Kane joined a year later, and last year was the first time the team suffered a loss in the tournament. Kennedy said looking back on everything they’ve accomplished the past five years is something special.

“It’s something you don’t realize until later, just how special it is,” Kennedy said. “When you’re winning, it’s like you’re living in the moment and then you look back when you finally lose and you think, ‘Man, that was one heck of a run.’ So, for us to still be playing in our prime, I still feel like we have an opportunity to win our fifth one.”

Kennedy and Kane haven’t lost any of their chemistry since winning the PIAA title in 2007, and although they didn’t play together in college and only had a very short stint on the same team in Russia, it’s like muscle memory for the pair when they get back onto the court each summer.

The Basketball Tournament has also allowed them to put that connection on display on a big stage.

“When we’re on the court, we just know each other, so that connection has just been great throughout our whole career,” Kennedy said. “Then with the tournament, I’m just glad people have gotten to see that other than just locals. It’s a bigger market, it’s televised, and I’m glad that people can see that, two kids from Pittsburgh.”

“I’ve been playing with him for 20-something years,” Kane said. “So, every time we step on the court, he knows my game, I know his game. So for us, we’ll be on the same page all the time.”

That type of connection is what Kennedy thinks has made the team so special over the past five years. He said each player on the roster has had a connection with someone else, whether they’ve played with them in the past or know them from somewhere.

“It’s just made it easy for us with not even practicing,” Kennedy said. “Just knowing that we know how to play basketball and we have that connection with one another.”

As the team goes for its fifth TBT title this year, one year after losing to Carmen’s Crew, a team made up of Ohio State alumni in the semifinals, the roster may have a different look.

Although the team still includes core players like Kennedy, Kane, Paris Horne, Justin Burrell and Bobby Browne, NBA veterans Joe Johnson, Jarrett Jack and Jordan Crawford have also joined. Even though NBA vets don’t come with necessarily the same background, Kennedy and Kane are hoping they can help the team bring home another title.

“It will be different because we have our culture with Overseas Elite and they are joining us,” Kennedy said. “But any time you can play with guys like that, especially a guy like Joe Johnson, you gotta take advantage of that because it’s a blessing, and we know what he’s done for the game.”

“Those guys are vets, Hall of Fame-type players, so to add those guys is really going to help us.” Kane said. “They are vets, they are smart, and they have been playing the game a long time. So they are going to see things that we don’t see.”

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, TBT has been limited to just 24 teams this year after it included 64 teams split into eight regions last year. Overseas Elite will play its first game at 4 p.m. July 9 against Armored Athlete/Power of the Paw. All TBT games will be aired on ESPN or ESPN2.

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