Chris Paul wants his legacy to be children’s education

Here’s a legacy for you. Las Vegas’ Andre Agassi won eight Grand Slams and Olympic gold, but that’s not what Chris Paul thinks of when he hears Agassi’s name.

“For me, anytime someone mentions Andre Agassi’s name, I think about the school he has (in Vegas) and how he gives back,” Paul says.

Agassi ran Vegas concerts for 15 years to raise around $100 million (mostly from rich people) for a charitable foundation that built and supports the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, a tuition-free public charter school in an “economically challenged” neighborhood here.

“I’ve talked to those kids in that school,” Paul said.

“As amazing as he was as a tennis player, that school he has in Vegas? That’s big,” Paul said.

Paul himself seems destined for the Basketball Hall of Fame as a star guard for the Los Angeles Clippers (and “NBA 2K” video games). But he says he’s also working to earn an Agassi kind of legacy.

“Some people are going to forget the shot you made or missed, but things like Andre’s school, and respecting the community, that’s what legacy really is,” Paul said.

Paul, an ESPN Sports Humanitarian of the Year, comes to Vegas now and again for charity events bearing his name, from basketball to bowling.

“Vegas has somewhat become a second home to me,” he said.

He will return Thursday to host his fourth annual pingpong tournament at The Venetian, bringing to the tennis table roster:

BET host Terrence J; “Dancing with the Stars’” Chelsie Kay Hightower; R&B singer Durrell “Tank” Babbs; actors Mark Shunock, Sidney S. Liufau and Soo Yeon Lee; sportscaster Al Bernstein; and dozens of athletes including Paul George, Kris Dunn, Devin Booker, Chris Algieri, DeJuan Blair, D’Angelo Russell, Bernard James, Willie Green, Derek Fisher, Jerry Stackhouse, John Hunter Nemechek, Leger Douzable, Mario Manningham, Jessie Vargas, Randy Couture, Seema Sadekar and Tyler Toffoli.

The tournament will raise money for the Chris Paul Family Foundation, which has opened learning centers in Los Angeles, North Carolina and Portland, Oregon.

Before the Vegas event, Paul is flying to Chicago to open another learning center. “We’ve got a few others (in) cities that will be popping up,” he added.

Paul started building the centers after he and his wife visited schools for his son and settled on a “first class” one with smart boards and “computers everywhere.”

“All I could think was, ‘This is amazing. We’re so blessed and fortunate we can do this for our kids. But what about the other people growing up on the other side of town, and those kids?’

“This is our way to use a lending hand to level the playing field.”

Incidentally, on Friday, after he took his daughter to a place where she could win tickets playing kids games, he oversaw her as she turned in her tickets for a little bracelet and frog pin for herself — and a little toy for her brother.

“My kids always get something for their sibling,” Paul said. “You’ve gotta show them that at an early age.”

TABLE TENNIS EVERYWHERE

On Wednesday, the NBA Summer League Table Tennis Challenge raised money for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Competitors at Rain in the Palms hotel included players Dennis Schroder, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Malik Beasley, plus coach Nick Van Exel.

FOODING

Musician and regular Tao nightclub DJ Jermaine Dupri got ready for his Thursday night performance by eating at Tao: satay of sea bass, chili chicken and satay of chicken with peanut sauce.

Movie/TV producer Jerry Bruckheimer commanded a large group of people there at a Tao VIP table.

MUNCHIES

Since Las Vegas is now a quiet little medical marijuana city, more celebrity stories concern weed-plus-food, as is the case in Friday’s in FirstWeFeast.com.

The site interviewed rapper Dizzy Wright, who lives in Vegas with a girlfriend who is writing a cookbook focusing on his spicy munchie tastes.

Anyway, the website asked him a good question: As a marijuana smoker, what’s his favorite buffet in Vegas?

“Ah man, I’ve been to all the buffets in Vegas. The best on is at the M Hotel,” he told the reporter. “The food was cooked really good — the baked chicken was great, the shrimp, the macaroni cheese, the mashed potatoes. … When you’re high and you’re hungry, go to the unlimited buffet.”

And that’s your weekend munchies report.

YET MORE FOOD

Chicago Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg, hanging with team members, drank wine at STK Steakhouse in The Cosmopolitan hotel Wednesday before he and his wife headed out to take on the night.

Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and players went with burrata salad, tuna tartare, kale salad and steak at STK on Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday at STK, rich TV star/Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who used to answer all his emails, dined with former NBA player Michael Finley on king crab, burrata and kale salad, and sea bass.

Even more from Wednesday at STK: Los Angeles Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell; Miami Heat assistant coach Juwan Howard; and former New York Giants player David Diehl.

Doug Elfman can be reached at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman. On Twitter: @VegasAnonymous