It's not often that Jason Kidd has to be separated from an opponent. But there he was on Friday morning being pushed back by NBA referee Joe Crawford, who was breaking up a heated confrontation between the New Jersey Nets' guard and rap star Lil' Bow Wow.

"Time to go back to the sandbox," Kidd warned, his head cocked sideways and his eyes glaring down at his waste-high opponent. "You aren't gonna burn me for 25 like you did everybody else."

"That's cause I'm gonna burn you for 30," Bow barked back, before faking an inbound pass, bouncing the ball off the back of the surprised Kidd, catching it and whipping it behind his own back to his teammate cutting baseline, actor Morris Chestnut.

Only Chestnut, star of such films as Two Can Play that Game and The Best Man, missed his wide-open reverse layup, as the Director yelled, "Cut."

Gary Payton plays his usual tough defense on Li'l Bow Wow during filming of his upcoming motion picture, Like Mike.

"Make the basket, Morris!!!" Bow Wow screamed as he ran down court and jumped on Chestnut's back, with Kidd and a crowd of maybe a hundred onlookers cracking up.

The scene, which was played out over and over again (until Chestnut finally made said shot), was one of many being filmed during NBA All-Star Weekend for the upcoming Twentieth Century Fox release, Like Mike. The rapper's first feature film will see cameos from a number of NBA favorites, including Gary Payton, Alonzo Mourning, Rasheed Wallace and Tracy McGrady, who shot their scenes in the 76ers' old home, the Philadelphia Spectrum, on Thursday and Friday, and Allen Iverson, Chris Webber and Kevin Garnett, who were scheduled to go in front of the cameras on Saturday afternoon.

Due out in July, the picture also features Jerry Maguire star Jonathan Lipnicki, Crispin Glover, who appeared in Charlie's Angels, and Robert Forster from Jackie Brown. But it was the All-Stars that Lil' Bow Wow was most excited about working with.

"> Li'l Bow Wow, actor Morris Chestnut and All-Star guard Jason Kidd check out a few takes after shooting.

"Shooting all these scenes here with the basketball players is real cool," said Bow, who plays the part of Calvin Cambridge, a teenager with NBA dreams, who discovers NBA skills after lacing up a pair of old sneakers with the initials MJ written inside. "It's cool playing with everybody and getting to know everybody, not just as a player, but also as a person. Everybody's real cool."

A die-hard Sixers fan, who performed at the Read to Achieve Youth Celebration Saturday morning, Lil' showed he can play a little ball and talk a little trash off camera, too, when he and Kidd went head-to-head between scenes.

"He said, 'Do you want to play some horse,' and I said, 'How about some one on one?'" Bow recalled. "That's when I took him to the hole. I beat him by one. But hey, a win is a win."

Although the All-NBA playmaker might have been taking it easy on the rookie – after all, the only ones watching were a small crowd of extras sitting in the stands along with dozens of cardboard cutout fans – he was surprised by the 14-year-old's touch from deep range and especially his handles.

"Lil' Bow Wow has an advantage because he's a little bit shorter than I am, so the ball doesn't have to come up as high," laughed Kidd, who was also informed that his Nets would have to go through the Sixers this year. "He can do all the tricks I can't do. But I picked up a couple things from him, so I'm going to try and display them this weekend."

While Kidd is looking forward to Sunday's All-Star Game, having been inserted into the East's starting lineup in place of the injured Vince Carter, he's also anxious to see his big screen debut this summer.

"Can't wait," he said. "Can't wait to take my son, and he's probably going to laugh because Dad gets embarrassed. I told him, 'You can't do that to Dad.' But I'm looking forward to it."