Chris Palmer is following NYC playground legend Rafer Alston through the Bucks-Magic series. Check back and get a feel for life behind the scenes. Here's the second installment. Click here to see Part 1.

The alarm clock barely gets a chance to bleep it's annoying little bleep at 9:30 a.m., before Rafer Alston smacks the machine silent. In no time he throws on a Bucks sweatsuit and is polishing off his second bowl of cereal.

At 9:45 he jumps in his Camry (he just bought an Escalade but hasn't picked it up yet) and takes the 10-minute drive to the Cousins Center, where the Bucks practice. Basketball practice is different for Skip than it is for say, Ray Allen or Sam Cassell. While Allen is the team's star, Alston is the 12th man. Free-agent 12th man to be exact. Practice for him means showing the coaches you're a better player now than you were in November. Showing you don't mind running the dummy squad. Showing that you're still willing to put in extra shooting even though you already know you'll see the letters DNP-CD next to your name in the box score.

In Game 1 he played 21 seconds and didn't touch the ball. That's why Skip is at practice an hour before most players will even show up. "You gotta show them you're willing to give them what they want," he says. That's why he's been big into weights lately (check the inch he added to his biceps in the last year).

Today the Bucks are scrimmaging. Rafer grabs a long rebound, fakes a behind-the-back pass to himself and narrowly misses George Karl, who's standing at center court like a kid playing in traffic. The defense gets back quickly, forcing Rafer to miss his swooping layup. He smacks his hands together in disgust. A blown oppurtunity.

He redeems himself by stealing a Cassell pass and feeding Tim Thomas for a fast-break dunk. After practice Alston sits in the corner of the gym nursing an orange Gatorade, thinking about a pass he could've made or a shot he shouldn't have taken, while Allen and Glenn Robinson are mobbed by reporters asking questions about matchup adjustments and potential sweeps.

The gym clears out ... now it's me sitting in a corner by myself, as Rafers shoots away. While his teammates prepare for Tracy McGrady, Rafer Alston prepares for the unknown.

Chris Palmer covers The NBA Life for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at christopher.palmer@espnmag.com.