KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Every kid who ever touched a basketball has lived this back-yard fantasy.

Final five seconds of the national championship. Score tied. The Kid brings the ball down, dribbles to the top of the key. Nobody open underneath. He cuts to the right, picks up a screen and gets off a shot. The ball arcs toward the rim, the buzzer sounds. Nothing but net!

"Absolutely amazing," screams the taped announcer at the "Beat the Clock" court of the College Basketball Experience, which adjoins the new Sprint Center in downtown Kansas City.

A construction binge in the works for several years is beginning to pay dividends for this Midwest city, and the early results are rewarding for history addicts, art lovers and basketball junkies.

This city is celebrating the opening of the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial and the impressive addition of the Bloch Building at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. And in the next several weeks, many of the restaurants, bars and shops in the nine-block Kansas City Power & Light District will be ready for business in what is being billed as a world-class entertainment district.

The glass-encased Sprint Center, an 18,500-seat multipurpose arena, debuted Oct. 13 with an Elton John concert that brought crowds into a downtown that had been dormant after dark for decades. A few days later, the College Basketball Experience opened next door, and a sign greeting visitors warned: "This is not a museum. You may sweat."

The dramatically lit National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame is on the first floor, along with a TV stage where you can read from a teleprompter and watch your own newscast. But the perspiration starts once you enter the elevator to go upstairs. The faces of players stare from the elevator walls and an unseen coach gives his locker room pep talk: "Lay it on the line. Don't leave anything out there."

The door opens and you walk through a tunnel lined by photos of cheerleaders and screaming fans. At the end is a tip-off circle, and beyond that a full basketball court with bleachers where you can shoot hoops. To one side is a three-on-three court for street ball. The other side has a variety of skill games, including the "Shoot from Downtown" court for three-pointers, "Step to the Line," where you try to make free throws in front of a hostile crowd, and the "Throw It Down" slam-dunk rims of varying heights.

After being humbled at the "Measure Up" feature, where my size 8 foot was dwarfed inside an imprint of Shaq's size 23, I retrieved a bit of self-esteem by slamming in a shot and hanging on the rim in exaltation. No matter that this was the 7-foot rim.

A local TV news crew also was attending the opening and the camera-toters were gone, leaving the sports anchor alone with a ball at the "Beat the Clock" court. The guy took off his sportcoat, loosened his tie and began dribbling on the maple floor. He must have had a little game in his background because he nailed several deep shots, which the announcer proclaimed, "Absolutely amazing."

Red in the face and out of breath, but smiling, he retrieved his coat and caught up with the camera crew downstairs.

"We've been seeing a lot of that," said Reggie Hines, a former fair-to-middling guard at Central Missouri State who manages the basketball operations. "They come in with a suit on, but see all this stuff.

"Put a ball in their hand, they're ready to go. They're 17 again."

The Elton John fans might have enjoyed a post-concert cocktail, but much of the downtown area was closed for the night after the office workers went home. No more. Cordish Co., the Baltimore-based developer that will build Ballpark Village in St. Louis, is putting the finishing touches on the Kansas City Power & Light District - an $850 million project on nine square blocks in the midst of the downtown, with four underground parking garages.

Jennifer Brandt of Cordish led a hardhat tour of the area, which eventually will include condo towers that will add up to 1,500 residents. "We'll have close to 50 restaurants and bars, a hipster bowling alley, a brewery," she said. "The tenants are pushing to open in time for the Big 12 basketball championships, which will be held at the Sprint Center in mid-March."

Many of the bars and restaurants are clustered around two central features - a European-style piazza with a water-and-fire fountain in the middle, and KC Live!, which has four tiers of restaurants with outdoor dining around an open-air stage under a canopy. "The back of the stage will be a waterfall that, when the stage is not in use, will flow over the stage into a moat," Brandt said. "We will have free events going on throughout the week, especially Thursday through Sunday."

Visitors will encounter a row of retail boutiques, a strip of white-tablecloth restaurants and a block of family friendly dining. An ultra high-end nightclub will allow VIPs to enter through a glass elevator, while the rest of us take the steps. Also planned is a Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, which will offer beers from around the world, and a Maker's Mark Bourbon Lounge, where you can sip whiskey.

"With the residential towers, we feel it will be more of a neighborhood than just a destination spot," Brandt said. "Even though it's got modern elements, we tried to make it feel like it fit into the downtown."

The public initially was bemused when the $94 million Bloch Building resembled a prefab structure added to the classic Beaux Arts facade of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. But architecture critics loved the addition, and public sentiment was won over when the lights were turned on and the translucent glass walls glowed like a firefly at night.

And once inside, the interior space with its curving ceilings and frequent windows offering generous peeks outside created a fresh experience, even in the administration areas where artwork was absent.

Curator Gaylord Torrence, who led a tour of the new building, said public sentiment began changing with the landscaping that joined the addition's five large boxes, which architect Steven Holl calls "lenses."

"At night, people were dazzled," Torrence said. "The industrial quality that people complained about fell away once these buildings were sited on the landscaping. The glass is like water. The light changes outside as clouds go over, and the experience in the building changes, moment to moment."

The slender, elongated building gave the museum 165,000 square feet of space in descending galleries that hold African art, contemporary art, photography, the Isamu Noguchi Sculpture Court and featured exhibitions. The improvements extended next door where major renovations were made to the original 1933 building, and permanent galleries underwent a complete reinstallation.

"The exterior of the building was cleaned, Kirkwood Hall was brought back to its original state and all of the galleries on the first floor are new, with the exception of ancient," Torrence said.

Torrence is the museum's curator of American Indian Art, and his specialty will receive a major boost in the renovation of the original building. A new gallery will create a 300 percent increase in space devoted to American Indian Art, establishing the Nelson as one of the pre-eminent art museums in this field.

The National World War I Museum finally got its tank.

The museum, which opened in December, has the country's largest collection of memorabilia from the "Great War" that America entered in 1917. On display are posters, uniforms, rifles, helmets, bayonets, artillery guns, mess kits - more than 50,000 objects used to fight the war.

Many now are displayed in a $26.5 million museum designed by Ralph Appelbaum, who also designed the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Clinton presidential library. The WWI museum was created in 30,000 square feet of space excavated beneath the Liberty Memorial, which was dedicated in 1921 and features a 217-foot obelisk-like tower on a plaza overlooking the Kansas City skyline, with two stone sphinxes standing guard.

Once inside the museum, visitors walk from the lobby into the main exhibit hall over a glass bridge, with a field of 9,000 red silk poppies below. Each flower represents 1,000 soldiers killed in the war from all nations. Through videos and displays, the museum tells the story of how America was drawn into the war, and the horror that followed on both sides.

Among the most compelling displays is a trench where visitors can eavesdrop on the conversations of soldiers, a 15-minute wide-screen movie with bombs flashing over a debris-filled battlefield and a walk into a giant crater that shows the destruction of the industrial-strength weapons used in the war.

But the smallest of the artifacts also tell a poignant story. A favorite is a German helmet with eight 5-cent stamps pasted to the outside. For 40 cents' postage, a soldier sent this war souvenir back home with a tag attached that said: Miss Lois Hodges, 640 Schaeffer Avenue, Kansas City, Mo.

Denise Rendina, marketing director for the museum, said it will greet about 160,000 visitors in its first year, well beyond projections. "People are spending a minimum of 2 ½ hours, and a lot are spending five to six hours," she said. "Some say, `I need to come back, I've absorbed what I can for one day.'"

And Rendina said the museum's collection is growing as old soldiers and their families offer their coveted relics. "We're receiving things from all over the country," she said. "Beautiful tunics, helmets, a handwritten letter that Gen. Pershing wrote as he was leaving Europe."

The museum had left open a space for a tank, and announced early this month that it had purchased from a Montana collector a French-made tank that had seen action on the Western Front during World War I.

So what's the going rate for a battle-tested tank: $225,000.

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IF YOU GO:

Where to stay: In the downtown, Aladdin Holiday Inn 1-816-421-8888 and www.hialaddin.com, Hilton President 1-816-221-9490 and www.hilton.com, Hotel Phillips 1-800-433-1426 and www.hotelphillips.com, Marriott 1-800-228-9290 and www.marriott.com/mcidt,

Crowne Plaza 1-800-227-6963 and www.crowneplaza.com. Outside of downtown, The Raphael 1-800-821-5343 and www.raphaelkc.com is a boutique hotel across from Country Club Plaza.

Where to eat: JP Wine Bar at 1526 Walnut Street and www.jpwinebar.com offers wine flights and small dishes. The seared scallops and tuna tartare were excellent, with a sampling of Malbec reds. I know, I know - whites with fish. Michael Smith at 1900 Main Street and 5/8 www.michaelsmithkc.com is located in the heart of the Crossroads Art District. Smith, a James Beard award-winning chef, delivers elegant American cuisine. Grinders at 417 East 18th Street has wings with three choices of hot sauce, Wimpy, Molten and Absolutely Insane. The decor is vintage garage, with a concert stage in the field out back. The South Philly cheese steak with Cheeze Wiz was delicious and $4.99 for a half, which was plenty.

College Basketball Experience: Admission is $10 for ages 18 and older; $7 for 6-17; free for 5 and under. Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. At 1401 Grand Boulevard, 1-816-949-7500 and www.collegebasketballexperience.com.

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Admission is free. At 45th and Oak streets, three blocks east of Country Club Plaza. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. 1-816-751-1278 and www.nelson-atkins.org.

Kansas City Power & Light District: Among the tenants are AMC Mainstreet Theatre, Angel's Rock Bar, Bristol Seafood Grill, ChinaBar, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Cosentino's Downtown Gourmet Market, Famous Dave's Barbecue, Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, GNC, Gordon Biersch Brewery & Restaurant, Howl at the Moon, Jos. A. Bank, Latteland Espresso & Tea, Lucky Strike Lanes, Maker's Mark Bourbon House & Lounge, McFadden's Sports Saloon, Mosaic Lounge, Plaza Ford Ideal, Polished Nail Salon, the Fudgery, Ted's Montana Grill and Vinino. McFadden's and Vivino opened in November, the rest are scheduled to open in the spring. At www.powerandlightdistrict.com.

National World War I Museum: Admission is $8 for those 12-64, $7 for seniors, $4 for children 6-11 and free for 5 and under. Military members admitted free with ID or uniform. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. At 100 West 26th Street, 1-816-784-1918 and www.nww1.org.

For more information: The Convention The Convention & Visitors Association: Call 1-800-767-7700 or visit www.visitkc.com. Our complete "If you go" listing can be found online at www.stltoday.com/trave.