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Late Friday afternoon, the last three MVPs of the league – and the leading candidate for this year’s honors – were gathered in the back of a bus, headed for a distinctly unglamorous assignment during the NBA’s most glamorous weekend.

LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Chris Bosh and Deron Williams pooled their collective star power and pitched in to lend a helping hand in a part of New Orleans that basketball fans will not be seeing during the weekend coverage of All-Star Weekend. These are the sections of the city that were ravaged by Hurricane Katrina 30 months ago, and are still struggling mightily to get back on their feet.

So, outside of the scorching world of trade rumors that have swirled around them and their teams for the better part of a month, LeBron, Kidd and Nash – three of the best assist men in pro hoops got together to assist some people who really need it.

Several non-profit groups have taken it upon themselves to help rebuild these poor neighborhoods in the Big Easy. LeBron and Co. headed to the Holy Cross neighborhood; the group that was working diligently around the superstars in the pouring rain is Rebuilding Together New Orleans.

“Our program has morphed into an everyday rebuilding effort utilizing volunteers from around the country to come to New Orleans to help rebuild,” said Kristin Palmer, director of Rebuilding Together. “The value is that we’re two-and-a-half years outside Katrina and the only way the city will be rebuilt is through efforts like these through public-private partnerships – like the NBA coming down here – because there’s been no leadership at the federal level, the state level or the local level.”

Seeing the devastation of the Holy Cross neighborhood is an eye-opening experience that can’t be felt just by seeing it on TV. One of the most eerie aspects of the neighborhood are the markings on porches and the front of houses. It’s a common and, by now, infamous symbol, divided into four parts by a cross or X: the top marking is the date the house was checked, the left marking is the agency that checked the house (FEMA or the DEA) the right number is how many people were removed and the bottom number is how many were dead inside.

LeBron talked about his memories of watching Hurricane Katrina unfold.

“It was unbelievable – something so bad and that devastating happening to families in America,” said a somber James. “You couldn’t believe that something like this was going on in this country. At the time people were losing their families. It was something that you didn’t think you’d live to see.”

The owner of the house LeBron and Deron Williams were working on – Jerome Richardson – who was pulled to safety during Katrina, was on-hand for the NBA event and got to meet and thank the Cavaliers superstar. Like 80 percent of the city, he lost almost everything in the flood. He moved to Irving, Texas and returned to try to piece his life together.

Richardson was moved by the NBA’s commitment and thinks things will eventually improve in the country so that a tragedy like this can be mitigated next time.

“Things will never change until we all stick together,” said an emotional Richardson, who grew up in that house on Lizardi Street. “Black, white, Hispanic. We all need to stick together. If we do things together, this world will be a better place and it’ll be a better world for all of us.”

The residents of Holy Cross, especially the children and young fans, saw a better place on Friday – if only for a little while – when LeBron James and his fellow All-Stars came to town.