Main Event is for the kids

Rob Miech, Las Vegas Sun

Tuesday, June 12, 2007 | 7 a.m.

Waliyy Dixon would like to knock on the front door of every home of every streetball fan who has ever seen him to give his thanks.

"To say, 'We love y'all,' " says the player known on the street as Main Event. "It's a shame we can't meet every one of them. Our fans are just overwhelming."

Dixon's Ball4Real crew, in its attention-grabbing black tour bus bearing his and five other members' pictures on each side, rolls into the Andre Agassi Boys & Girls Club one day last week.

A crowd of about 100 kids on the steamy gym's bleachers eagerly awaits the players .

Before taking center stage, Dixon, a 33-year-old father of four, says he hopes his words sink in with some of those kids.

"It's more than sports," he says. "It's about bringing communities together. This is our of our hearts. The court is one thing. This is a whole other love."

Dixon flunked out of Rutgers University, then honed his game at the famed Rucker Park in New York under legendary street coach Mousey Carela.

At St. Marks Park in Linden, N.J., Dixon's hometown, he hosted the first official streetball game, he says, in summer 1999. The New York crew was late, and a crowd of 2,500 was growing restless.

So Dixon converted a dunk after jumping over a motorcycle, and Main Event was born. He was one of several players featured on a previous tour aired on ESPN.

"Some of these kids are in awe," he says. "They have my trading card and know about the motorcycle, but I want to share my stories with them because it'll help them be better people.

"I'm just a people person. Main Event is a good person. I represent everything that's positive, man."

Dixon tells the throng at the Agassi club that you can't get through life by yourself. You need friends. And you should be nice to everyone.

Get the best education you can because that leads to the best jobs. Put those iPods and Xboxes down, and take school seriously. The kids moan and groan.

"The more you know, the easier it'll be," Main Event says. "You do bad, we do bad. It's a reflection on us. Do good, and we do good."

He plucks a dozen kids from the crowd and places them around the center-court circle of the court. He randomly tosses a ball. Someone drops it, then shuffles back to the bleachers.

Six-year-old Anahi Ontiveros is the last one standing. The winner.

"I did outstanding," she says shyly. What did she learn from Main Event? "Don't be mean to people."

After , Dixon beams about the oldest of his children, son Corey, who is in junior college and on track to transfer to West Virginia or Rutgers.

College didn't work out for Dixon, but he created a niche company that allows plenty of people to support themselves and their families via basketball.

But it's about more than basketball.

"This is my high, seeing these kids and their reactions," Dixon says. "I want to have attributes like Muhammad Ali. I want to go out like guys like that, true to the sport and fans."