SHOOTING STARS: Basketball legends hit the Strip for docudrama

  An all-star lineup of basketball greats gets the ball rolling on a busy week of location shooting.
  The whistle blows today at the Palazzo’s Lagasse’s Stadium for the docudrama “On the Shoulders of Giants,” from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Union Productions.
  Abdul-Jabbar himself will join fellow NBA legends Bill Russell and Jerry West, Harlem Globetrotter Marques Haynes and Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf in a debate regarding the all-time greatest team.
  NBA reporter Chris Webber will be on hand to call the action, during which Abdul-Jabbar will cite “the greatest basketball team you’ve never heard of” — the Harlem Rens, a Depression-era squad that overcame pervasive racism to win a world championship. (You can check out a trailer for “On the Shoulders of Giants” at www.kareemabduljabbar.com.)
  The docudrama will be in theaters next February, according to executive producer Deborah Morales, Abdul-Jabbar’s Union Productions partner.
  As for the location, “We chose Lagasse’s Stadium because it is the classiest sports bar in Las Vegas,” she e-mails, “and the best place to argue sports.”
  Quick change: Last night, the MGM Grand Garden was scheduled to host the 45th annual Academy of Country Music Awards.
  Tonight, many of the same performers will be back onstage for another CBS show: a Brooks & Dunn special being taped for broadcast May 23.
  “Brooks & Dunn: The Last Rodeo All-Star Concert” salutes country’s top-selling duo with a lineup that ranges from such stalwarts as Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift to “Dreamgirls” Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson.
  Doing back-to-back shows is “a jigsaw puzzle that I love putting together,” says executive producer R.A. Clark — despite the fact that it’s “exponentially more difficult” to do so, he says.
  For one thing, “we rip the set down” as soon as Sunday’s awards telecast concludes, “and then build another one” for tonight’s special, he explains. For another, “everyone has to learn their Brooks & Dunn number.”
  But at least the performers “don’t mind staying another night” in Las Vegas, although “I feel like a coach,” because “I have to tell all the performers to ‘Get to sleep early — you’ve got another show to do,’ ” Clark jokes.
  Jump around: The Travel Channel’s new daredevil series, “Bert the Conqueror,” follows adrenaline junkie Bert Kreischer as he takes on extreme challenges, from riding Georgia’s Kinga Ka roller coaster to walking Massachusetts’ “Greasy Pole.” And on Tuesday, Kreischer’s set to be one of the first to take the plunge at Stratosphere’s new Skyjump attraction.
  The Skyjump will climax a half-hour Southern Nevada episode set to air this summer, according to executive producer Charlie Parsons. (“Bert the Conqueror” debuts June 16.)
  In addition to the Skyjump, Kreischer will experience the Stratosphere’s other thrillers: Big Shot, Insanity and X-Scream.
  After all, “when you’re on top of the Stratosphere, you want to take advantage of it,” says Parsons. A visit to Lake Mead’s Slip ’n’ Slide will round out the episode.
  To capture Kreischer’s Skyjump in high-definition video, “Bert the Conqueror” crews will strap small point-of-view cameras to his leg and wrist.
  And while Kreischer’s a definite adrenaline junkie, “he still can get shaky knees,” the producer says. “That’s what makes him human.”
  Lake effect: Speaking of Lake Mead, the National Park Service continues production on “Life of the Desert: Lake Mead,” a new visitors’ center interpretive film scheduled to debut next year.
  It’s the “third or fourth” time cameras have rolled at the 1.5 million-acre national recreation area, which is “roughly the size of the state of Delaware,” explains producer Chuck Dunkerly.
  And while the documentary depicts the refuge as “the place where people come to get rejuvenated, recharge and reconnect with nature,” he says, it also will include close-ups of “the snakes, tarantulas, bighorn sheep, coyote and other critters” that serve as “the   driving force to the desert.”
  Reality bites: “Criss Angel Mindfreak” begins production on its sixth season today for a return to A&E in July.
  Six weeks of shooting will take the show — and its star, who headlines Luxor’s “Believe” — to such “iconic locations” in the area as the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, according to executive producer David Baram.
Also continuing production: the History Channel hit “Pawn Stars” and Holly Madison’s “Holly’s World” for E!
  Spidey sense: There’s a new Spider-Man in town: a 6-year-old named Jack, whose battle against a life-threatening illness didn’t stop him from starring in his own Spider-Man short last week, thanks to local Make-a-Wish Foundation volunteers.
  In the short, Jack/Spidey swoops in as dastardly Carrot Top attempts to kidnap a dozen Elvis impersonators and hold them hostage in very same Las Vegas Hilton Sky Villas where the King once reigned. Other locations included Mayor Oscar Goodman’s office, where Mirage headliner Terry Fator and actor Rusty Meyers also got into the act, as filmed by Las Vegas-based Ben Kalb Productions.
  The short will have a red-carpet premiere later this year.