Video: Backstage Look at Players Before NBA's All-Star Practice

February 20 2011 Last updated at 06:19 AM ET

LOS ANGELES -- The NBA holds a public practice for its All-Stars on Saturday morning every year as part of the All-Star weekend festivities. Not much happens of course, other than players going through a few shooting drills for show, and the coaches reviewing the most basic of plays with their newly assembled squad. It's mainly a chance for fans to see the game's biggest stars up close and in person, assembled in one place at as intimate a venue as you'll find in NBA circles.

Before the players took the floor, they were all hanging around in this sort of backstage area which was also open to the media, even though there were no interviews being conducted. Mostly it was the players interacting with each other as if no one else was around.

In the video clip below, you'll see the majority of the All-Stars doing exactly that.

Let's just get this out of the way: even from the standpoint of someone like me who's gotten used to having this kind of access, this was an odd, odd scene. You had the biggest names and most famous faces in the game interacting with each other as if they were there by themselves, even though cameras were rolling and plenty of random people were watching their every move.

I'm sure these guys are used to living their professional lives like this at this point, but when you see how close I was with the camera while they basically acted as if they were alone, well ... it was an extremely candid look behind the scenes.

In one of the few parts where you can actually discern what the players are discussing, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett are seen busting on Amar'e Stoudemire about the Carmelo Anthony rumors, clearly teasing him by saying that what he's doing by commenting on it publicly is "tampering."

Another highlight comes at the very end of the clip, when you here an ominous voice begin to complain about the fact that there are so many people with cameras hanging around in what's supposed to be a relatively secluded area.

" ... outta here with all these cameras, man," the voice exclaimed, clearly annoyed with the situation.

When I heard this coming from directly behind me, I panicked and shut the camera off. But I should have kept it rolling.

Immediately after that, I felt a strong nudge on my shoulder, and the voice said sternly, "Get that camera out of here, boy!" As soon as I turned around to see who it was, I found myself staring at an intense and intimidating looking LeBron James.

I was smiling the whole time, and after going over the encounter in my head several times and remembering the look on his face, I still can't tell if LeBron was joking or if he was serious. But either way, the experience punctuated the oddness of the extremely intimate access I had to the NBA's All-Stars on Saturday morning.

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