Melbourne United adds third import in DJ Kennedy

MELBOURNE United has finalised its roster for the 2018-19 NBL season, signing American import DJ Kennedy.

The 28-year-old shooting guard/forward joins returning United championship-winning imports Casper Ware and Josh Boone in Melbourne.

Kennedy recently led Overseas Elite to its fourth consecutive The Basketball Tournament Championship — American knockout competition with a $2.8 million purse.

Kennedy’s signing ends weeks of speculation around United’s last roster spot.

United coach Dean Vickerman said Kennedy had been on the club’s radar last year.

“When we were looking and ended up with Casey Prather — we watched some games of Casey in Germany and DJ was in that same league,” Vickerman said.

“He’s been a high-level European guy since he came out of college and a guy that we thought has all the tools to fit the job description.

“We looked at a lot of different guys and we took our time after NBA Summer League just to see what shaped out and from our research last year of DJ we got the opportunity and Josh Boone knows him well and that was a character check for us that he ticked the boxes there.”

Having both spent time in New York over their respective careers, the Boone and Kennedy connection is a strong one and they have competed against each other in the TBT Tournament too.

Kennedy last played for Pınar Karşıyaka in the 2017/18 Turkish Basketball Super League season and averaged 15.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.1 assists.

Kennedy will be available for the NBL Blitz, starting September 20-23 in Bendigo and Ballarat.