All-Stars Kobe Bryant, left, of the Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers pose for pictures in NBA Entertainment's makeshift photo studio inside the Palms on Friday. Photo by John Gurzinski.

A tiny block of hotel rooms on the third floor of the Palms has been converted into the command center for NBA Entertainment during All-Star Weekend.

Paul Hirschheimer was pacing animatedly Friday in a makeshift photo studio amid the controlled madness.

NBA and WNBA players were scheduled to appear in the rooms for interviews and photo sessions to feed the monster that is NBA Entertainment.

Hirschheimer, who considers himself a documentarian of the game's history, wants to get a photo of All-Stars Kobe Bryant of the Lakers and LeBron James of the Cavaliers together.

The players are on a loose schedule, permitted to come and go at their leisure. James, looking very Ivy League with a light blue Oxford shirt and navy blue V-neck sweater, has arrived and is sitting on a stool posing for photographs.

"I would love -- love -- to get him with Kobe," Hirschheimer says, "but it isn't automatic. Who knows? We hope we can get that magical overlap."

Hirschheimer, NBA vice president and general manager of field production, turns away from the door and kicks a balled up piece of paper on the floor, staring nervously at his watch.

James has already been in the room for a few minutes and won't be around much longer.

Suddenly, Bryant appears in the doorway. When it's mentioned to Hirschheimer, he spins like an enlisted man responding to a superior officer and eyes Bryant.

The Lakers star pays no attention to him and walks over to James and the gaggle of NBA Entertainment photographers.

Hirschheimer mutters, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you," and makes a little fist in celebration.

It's a victory -- a big one -- for the behind-the-scenes guy.

"This is a historic picture," Hirschheimer says. "We'll have this up on NBA.com within seven minutes."

Hirschheimer is part of a small army of NBA Entertainment employees that has descended upon Las Vegas to document the sights and sounds of the first All-Star Game played in a non-NBA city.

Their work this weekend will provide content for NBA TV, NBA.com and NBA Radio for the remainder of the season.

Three floors below, a team led by Rob Peterson is huddled around a group of laptop computers. Players are doing interviews at a series of tables and members of the NBA.com staff are listening in, then relaying the information to co-workers who are blogging.

Guard Chris Paul says something in his interview that sends an NBA.com employee racing over to one of the bloggers. He relays the quote, it is transcribed and put up and on the Internet seconds after the words were uttered.

"Our fans who can't make it want to be able to feel what it's like to be here in Vegas and we're trying to give that to them," Peterson said. "This is a way to let the fans get a sense of what it's like and to see All-Star Weekend through the eyes of our players and those of us who are experiencing this."

The Web site includes a collection of some of the greatest dunks in the league's history, as well as a recap of each Slam Dunk Contest, from the first one in 1976 when an ABA star for the New York Nets named Julius Erving held the crowd of 17,798 at McNichols Arena in Denver transfixed with a variety of awe-inspiring slams.

There is a collection of best dunks by little men. There is another for top power dunks. There's one for dunks off the glass, another for stunt dunks and another for teamwork.

As video plays of the top 10 dunks, Hirschheimer gets so excited he can barely slow down. Putting together the top-10 lists, though, was no simple task.

"There were a lot of arguments back in Secaucus," he said. "A lot."

Secaucus, N.J., is home to the NBA Entertainment offices. For the All-Star Game, Hirschheimer said, "Basically, we loaded up Secaucus and stuck it in a 40-foot truck."

It's only a slight exaggeration. There are more NBA employees flitting around the hall on the third floor at the Palms than the population of Nevada towns such as Rachel, Sutcliffe and Zephyr Cove.

In one room, ABC/ESPN analyst Greg Anthony, the one-time Rancho High School and UNLV star, is interviewing All-Stars for footage to be used on the game broadcast. In another room, WNBA players are fooling around with some photo equipment.

In a third, Dion Cocoros, NBA Entertainment senior director of original productions, is compiling interviews to be used in league documentaries that will be seen in the second half of the season and beyond.

As Cocoros talks about the cooperation he receives from the players, two-time Most Valuable Player Steve Nash stands in front of a chalkboard containing diagrammed plays. Cocoros is asking each All-Star to sign the board -- in chalk -- to add an unmatched visual to the background.

"They know we're the keepers of the game, so to speak, and we've been around so long that they feel comfortable talking to us about stuff only we know," Cocoros said. "As the players grow and are in the league and even after they leave it, they begin to realize what we're about.

"Obviously, when you're an active player, you focus on winning. But when they come back after they've retired, they can see what we are after. Former players definitely have a keen appreciation for what we're doing."

Few have a greater appreciation for that than Steve Herbst, senior vice president and general manager of NBA TV.

Coordinating All-Star Weekend takes months of planning, he said, and can seem overwhelming. But as the players move smoothly from photo session to interview session and the television network is preaching the NBA gospel and the Web site has every conceivable angle covered, Herbst said it becomes obvious why so much energy is spent in preparation.

"These guys are the best of the best and it's not often you get this kind of collection of talent in one place," he said. "When you get the opportunity to talk to these guys at the same time and to document the person behind the player, it kind of makes it all worthwhile. This is a very unique opportunity to bring to basketball fans around the world a perspective they can't get anywhere else."