City of Basketball Love

Danny Holdsman (@DHoldsman)
--

Dionte Christmas has always had numerous options for where to play basketball. This has been the case in high school, college, professional, and even The Basketball Tournament.

Christmas played the first two years of TBT with the team his agent, Andre Buck, set up. When it became clear that Buck would not have a team in year three, Christmas was essentially a free agent.

His decision to play for Team F.O.E. and co-coaches/team organizers Marcus and Markeiff Morris came down to one factor: timing.

“The reason why [I played with F.O.E.] is because they asked me first,” Christmas said. “I’m with these guys a lot, so they hit me up months ago. The Temple guy asked me about a month after these guys.”

Temple fans may be disappointed that Christmas has never played with the team of Temple alumni, the North Broad Street Bullies. Christmas, though, is adamant that he has nothing against his alma mater.

“I never played with the Temple teams, which is funny,” he said. “It’s not because I don’t like Temple -- I love Temple.”

Christmas is also in a similar free agency process with his professional career right now. After playing with the Utah Jazz in the Summer League, the 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Samuel Fels High School is trying to get back into the NBA.

“If it’s in the NBA, I want something guaranteed,” he said. “I had a great time playing with the Jazz this past couple of weeks. The organization is ‘A1’, the coaching staff is great, so that’s ideally where I want to be. But being anywhere in the NBA would be great for me.”

Along with a potential contract offer in store from Utah or another interested team in ‘the Association,’ Christmas already has deals awaiting him in Turkey and Australia.

The 2009 Temple graduate played 31 games for the Phoenix Suns in the 2013-14 season and averaged 2.3 points per game. Prior to that he spent time with clubs in Greece and Italy. Following his release from Phoenix, Christmas had stints in Israel, France, and again in Greece.

Christmas was on a mission this summer to prove to NBA front offices that he is deserving of a roster spot. He posted a respectable 9.4 points per game on 43 percent from the field in eight games with the Jazz.

Christmas’ scoring success should come as no surprise. He was the top scorer in the entire Atlantic 10 his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons with 20.0, 19.7, and 19.5 ppg respectively.

No matter where Christmas lands for next season, chances are he won’t have the same camaraderie that he does playing with his childhood friends.

“All of us grew up together--the cheering section, the [Morris] twins, Scott Rodgers, Maalik Wayns--we all grew up together,” Christmas said of his F.O.E. teammates. “It’s always fun playing with each other. I can’t wait for the Danny Rumph tournament to play with the same guys.”

Although Christmas and F.O.E.’s TBT aspirations fell short Thursday night in a 99-83 loss to City of Gods, he was thrilled with the overall experience.

“It’s always great playing in your hometown with the fans and even the guys you grew up with,” Christmas said. “There’s nothing better than that: playing in Philadelphia and competing for $2 million.”