Main Event, BALL4LIFE CEO since 1999.

Main Event’s company Ball4Life has been around since the first And 1 game at Linden, New Jersey back in ‘99. It’s never stopped and now it’s about to become bigger than ever. You can read most of this article in the latest issue of Bounce issue #14. Unfortunately, the final version included some errors in the text, so I wanted to put this up for fans who want to be well informed about street ball.

In our June ’07 issue we wrote about the end of the AND 1 dynasty when 10 players—AO, Air Up There a.k.a. Mr. 720, Main Event, Circus, High Octane, Shane the Dribbling Machine, Special EFX, Pharmacist, Spyda and Half Man Half Amazing—bolted to form their own Ball4Real tour. We can now officially report that it has folded. AND 1 remains standing after a small summer calendar.

Conversations with several players and former Ball4Real CEO Lisa Fusco revealed that Ball4Real collapsed because Fusco was unable to put the financial pieces in place to create a successful business. Last year she told Bounce that she had lined up Mountain Dew as a sponsor, plus one investor, to cover the large expenses involved with staging games in arenas around the world. Now, in a recent interview, Fusco said that her main investor backed out early last summer. She said that she told the players they would not be getting paid the full value of their contracts—some of which were worth $100,000 per year. “The players were part owners, so it wasn’t like I was operating out of a vacuum,” she said. According to Lisa, the players had a choice to leave the tour or play out the string.

But at least two players, Shane the Dribbling Machine and Main Event, said Fusco never told them exactly what was going on, and promised they would eventually get all their money. “She didn’t call any of the players,” said Shane. “That’s the way a thief or coward goes about it.” He said one day he text-messaged Fusco, and she hit him back saying she was scared and didn’t know what to do. He said that was as far as the conversation went, and that nobody ever heard from her besides that.

Fusco insists she was completely up front. “Whether it sunk in or not at the end of the day, I don’t know,” she said. Either way, after their last stop in Bogota, Colombia, the players never received most of the money promised to them in their contracts.

Main Event thinks Fusco started the tour too quickly and for the wrong reasons. According to Main, Fusco had some sort of fallout with AND 1, and wanted to leave and take the players with her just to show that she could. “Whatever Lisa’s plan was, it backfired,” Main stated. “She bull****ted me and the rest of the players.”

It’s a shame that Ball4Real folded considering that it drew decent crowds and produced some memorable games, like AO’s buzzer-beater Uptown last summer against the Tri-State Classic All-Stars. Another huge disappointment was that Pat Da Roc won the promised $100,000 contract after a summer of hard work on tour, but will never receive a dime. Even with all this mess, though, the players say they are doing fine. Most of them will be joining Main and Shane on their newest tour, Ball4Life. Main, Ball4Life CEO, says they have signed a three-year deal with the China Street Ball Association to have Ball4Life tour there. “Ball4Life will also focus on community service and working with kids about building character and making the right decisions: It takes more than dunking and a fancy dribble to be down. Ball4life and Main Event made it possible for street ball players to receive a legal check,” declared Main. And with this new company beginning, Main doesn’t look at And 1 as their competitor. “And 1 is in the same genre as the Harlem Globetrotters, and to me the ‘Trotters are the number one show basketball team in the world.” Ball4Life’s competitor is the concern of today’s youth or that teenager making the wrong decision.

Even though Ball4Real didn’t succeed like they thought, it seems like the players wanted to leave for a long time due to And 1 mistreating them and allowing certain poisonous things to happen within the company. For example, the opposing team coach for And 1 at the time would pick certain guys for various motives, then not give time to players who worked hard to get into the building during the open run. That’s a major reason he wasn’t approached by Lisa Fusco to be apart of the Ball4Real tour. Things like that hurt the company among many others that will not be addressed at this time. “There are some good ball players at And 1, but you are only as good as your leader,” says Main.

Meanwhile, the AND 1 tour continues, albeit without Hot Sauce, who has parted ways with the squad. Even though And 1 is still standing, it’s hard to give them the street ball crown when the head coach has no street ball or basketball credibility other than being “related” to Skip To My Lou. Just my opinion. Nobody’s else’s. Not Bounce’s or Dime Magazine’s. Just mine!

For more information on Ball4Life, visit B4L.net.