Pitt’s Dixon handles life on, off the court

Jermaine Dixon couldn’t stop crying. Eight years old, and a battle with AIDS had just caught up… Jermaine Dixon couldn’t stop crying. Eight years old, and a battle with AIDS had just caught up with his mother, taking her life. His older brothers, Juan and Phil, picked up a basketball and made their way toward their local court. They showed no sign of tears. Thirteen years later and in his first year with the Pitt basketball team, Dixon understands why. ‘Basketball,’ said Dixon, ‘was their therapy.’ Dixon, a junior-college transfer from Tallahassee Community College in Florida, is fighting for a starting guard position on the Pitt men’s basketball team. With returning players and a talented freshmen class, he has some work ahead of him on a team with big plans. But he’s used to struggling. Dixon grew up in Baltimore, Md., where, in his early years, his mother, Juanita, raised him. But after Juanita, who was a heroin addict, passed away, he and the rest of his family were stuck. Dixon and his siblings moved in with their grandmother. That’s when Phil, Dixon’s oldest brother, became the family’s role model. ‘Phil, he was strict,’ said Dixon of his brother, who is now a 34-year-old police officer in Baltimore. ‘He kind of became the father figure. Anything I did wrong ‘- anything Juan did wrong ‘- he’d be right on us.’ But even with a role model, life in east Baltimore was never easy. Drugs and violence ran the streets. But Dixon said he realized he couldn’t waste his life. He couldn’t let the streets swallow him. He decided that he’d focus on basketball, and that there wasn’t anything strong enough to stop him from getting out. He watched Juan star as a guard at Maryland, where he led the Terrapins to a national title in 2002. It inspired him ‘mdash; especially after Juan had been told his entire life that he wasn’t good enough to make it in college or in the pros. He proved the doubters wrong and now plays with the NBA’s Washington Wizards. ‘Juan really helped me out,’ said Dixon. ‘He made sure I was taken care of, helped me get out of the city.’ Now at Pitt, Dixon said he has some doubters of his own. After all, he had been told the same thing they told to his brother. ‘People talk, they say the same thing over and over,’ said Dixon. ‘They said I’m not good enough, I’ll never make it.’ But Dixon didn’t care. He still doesn’t. In fact, he said it helps him grow. So some competition against teammates for a starting role? No big deal. A physical game with elbows and black eyes? It’s nothing. After facing, then escaping the temptation of drugs and violence in school and on the streets, basketball is easier. ‘The [school] got a little crazy once in a while,’ said Dixon. ‘There are people trying to pull you into trouble, but I learned early not to. I just wanted to play basketball.’ And basketball is no longer just his escape, it’s become his life ‘mdash; a life he’s happy with. He talks about the game of basketball with a smile. When he plays, he looks like he was meant to do nothing else. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said he’s been impressed with the play of his junior-college recruit ‘mdash; on and off the court. And considering the way he was raised, he said it’ll help the 21-year-old on the court. ‘He’s well liked by his teammates,’ said Dixon, who recruits a lot of inner-city kids. ‘He feels comfortable here.’ Part of the reason for that comfort is the way the team greeted him. Many of the Pitt players are from tough, city streets. They can relate to Dixon’s situation. And they’ve taken him in, no matter how heated the competition for a starting spot is. The 6-3 Dixon got off to a good start Sunday, scoring 16 points in Pitt’s intra-squad scrimmage. He showed range from the outside and played hard under the basket. He hopes he’ll continue to succeed and be a part of a winning team when the season starts. ‘The expectations, they’re crazy,’ said Dixon. ‘But I’m ready for it. The team is ready for it. Now we just have to play.’ And even when Dixon graduates, he’ll continue to play. He said it doesn’t matter where it is, but nothing will keep him off the court. He made it away from a street that swallowed so many lives ‘mdash; so many lives he was involved in. He did it with the help of his brothers and the love of a ball bouncing off the court. He said that in a couple months from now, when he’s playing against teams like Georgetown and Connecticut on a national stage, he’ll think about his mother, the streets he came from and’ how the rest of his family stuck by him and helped him become a man. When he does that, he’ll just smile and walk toward the court. He’ll do what his brothers taught him to do 13 years ago. And the ball he’s dribbling won’t ever stop bouncing.