WATTS SUMMER GAMES : He Brought Baby Up to Be the Best

Richard Klevit seemed truly torn: Should he spend Father’s Day with his father, or with his baby?

The “baby” in this case, the boys basketball tournament at the 26th annual L.A. Watts Summer Games, is one that Klevit helped develop and has nurtured for seven years.

The father in this case, Alan, was celebrating Father’s Day and his 57th birthday.

Understandably, Klevit left Compton College early so he could attend his father’s party.

“Unfortunately, it’s going to be my first finals game I haven’t seen in seven years,” Klevit said before leaving Sunday morning.

Maybe the party was better than the championship game.

Top-seeded Dominguez High routed Fairfax, 75-52, at Compton College, capping two weekends of Games competition.

Still, no one was blaming Klevit for leaving early, probably because they know what he has accomplished since his arrival from Maryland in 1984.

He had never heard of the Watts Games until he went looking for a pick-up game.

“One kid who was playing said, ‘Why don’t you come see us play,’ ” Klevit said. “It turned out to be the Watts Games.”

By 1988, Klevit had taken over the boys’ basketball tournament and expanded it from 64 teams to 128 teams.

Yet not everybody thought his expansion plans were feasible.

“They didn’t think it’d work,” Klevit said. “(But) there was a waiting list, and I knew there was interest. So I went around to all the schools and games, met the coaches, and asked them, ‘What do you think?’

“I knew that with 400-plus schools, it would probably have a lot more excitement (with 128 teams).”

Suddenly, the tournament was the largest of its kind in the world.

And to ensure that they weren’t exaggerating that claim, Klevit and a colleague did some research; they were unable to find a five-on-five tournament with more teams.

Klevit, a board member of the L.A. Junior Chamber of Commerce, hopes to continue expanding the tournament.

“What we’d like to do is invite some of the East Coast powerhouses,” he said, “like a DeMatha High School, Baltimore Dunbar, or some of the schools from New Jersey (or) New York . . . to get them out here to make it more of a national tournament.”

Of course, that would require a lot more work from Klevit, who is one of about 200 volunteers who help put on the Games.

They work long hours, doing mostly thankless work.

“I don’t think the general participants understand the kind of work that (they are) putting in,” said Fairfax Coach Harvey Kitani, who has coached players such as Chris Mills and Sean Higgins at the Games.

“That’s OK, because I love boys’ basketball,” said Klevit, who works for a telephone communications company. “I’ve got a real affinity for (the tournament) . . . I’m real close to it.”

He also is close to a lot of the players.

And the enduring message he would like to provide them is that there are alternatives to drugs, and ways to stay out of gangs.

“I know of (two) kids who were actually in gangs, who, when they got involved with this (were) able to break out of the gang,” Klevit said.

“I think we’re making a difference,” he said, “but it’s a slow difference.”