Team City of Gods

Team City of Gods
Leagues	The Basketball Tournament
Founded	2015
History	Team City of Gods (2015–2017)
Location	Baltimore, Maryland
Team colors	Red and Navy Blue
General manager	Lafonte Johnson
Head coach	Joe Connelly III
Website	Team page
Home Away

Team City of Gods was an American basketball team that has participated in The Basketball Tournament (TBT), a winner-take-all single-elimination tournament. The team advanced to the TBT 2015 semifinals, beating tournament favorite Boeheim's Army, before falling to eventual tournament champions Overseas Elite.

The team played in the Northeast Region of the tournament in 2015, their first year of existence. The team was coached by Joe Connelly III, a former player development coach for the Washington Wizards based in Baltimore, Maryland. ^[1] City of Gods was managed by former George Washington basketball player Lafonte Johnson. ^[2] The team featured five players with experience in the National Basketball Association (NBA). ^[3]

History

Team City of Gods was founded in 2015, primarily by Joe Connelly III, who had previously worked as the development coach for the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association. Connelly, currently a professional basketball trainer based in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, has experience coaching public school teams, at recreation centers, and in the Amateur Athletic Union. He is the older brother of both Denver Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly and Phoenix Suns assistant general manager Tim Connelly. ^[4]

Connelly chose the team's players primarily because he had connections with each of them. ^[5] One player, Michael Sweetney, said that "Joe Connelly pretty much put the whole team together". ^[6] Connelly and general manager Lafonte Johnson, a former college basketball player for UNLV and George Washington, helped gain fans by campaigning on Twitter and other social media websites. ^[5] Joe Connelly came up with the team name, using a popular Baltimore clothing brand. Connelly also liked how the name of the clothing brand sounded like reaching for greatness and being great. The name helped make the team more popular, which helped gain support and votes in order to enter the basketball tournament and a chance to win $1 million dollars.

Logo and uniforms

• 
  Logo, 2015–2017
• 
  Uniforms, 2015–2017

Players

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

Team City of Gods roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age SG 1 Sweetney, Devin 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 200 lb (91 kg) 37 – (1987-10-23)23 October 1987 PG 5 Goss, Phil 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 187 lb (85 kg) 42 – (1983-04-07)7 April 1983 SG 13 Silas, Xavier 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 205 lb (93 kg) 37 – (1988-01-22)22 January 1988 PF 14 Gist, James 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 235 lb (107 kg) 38 – (1986-10-26)26 October 1986 SG 20 Kromah, Lasan 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 207 lb (94 kg) 34 – (1991-06-24)24 June 1991 PF 21 Mensah-Bonsu, Pops 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 235 lb (107 kg) 41 – (1983-09-07)7 September 1983 PG 22 Strong, Omar 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) 162 lb (73 kg) 35 – (1990-05-16)16 May 1990 SF 22 Smith, Roscoe 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 205 lb (93 kg) 34 – (1991-05-01)1 May 1991 SG 34 Hawkins, David 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 225 lb (102 kg) 42 – (1982-10-28)28 October 1982 SF 35 Johnson, DerMarr 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 209 lb (95 kg) 45 – (1980-05-05)5 May 1980 C 50 Sweetney, Michael 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 295 lb (134 kg) 42 – (1982-10-25)25 October 1982 C 55 N'Diaye, Hamady 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 236 lb (107 kg) 38 – (1987-01-12)12 January 1987	Head coach Joe Connelly III Assistant coach(es) Evan Monroe Team manager Lafonte Johnson Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: July 28, 2015

References

1. "Joe Connelly III". The Basketball Tournament . Retrieved 28 July 2015.
2. "Lafonte Johnson". The Basketball Tournament . Retrieved 28 July 2015.
3. "Team City of Gods". The Basketball Tournament . Retrieved 28 July 2015.
4. "Meet the Four Teams Playing for $1,000,000". The Basketball Tournament . Retrieved July 28, 2015.
5. "Joe Connelly: Pure with the game". The Basketball Tournament . Retrieved July 28, 2015.
6. Kennedy, Alex. "NBA The Basketball Tournament: Roundtable Q&A". BasketballInsiders.com. Retrieved 28 July 2015.

External links

• Official team page
• Team City of Gods on Twitter
• Team City of Gods on Facebook
• Joe Connelly III
• Lafonte Johnson