I was hanging out at the release party for the And 1 Mix Tape Summer Tour in NYC last night. And 1 rounded up the best playground ballers and a couple pros to screen Mix Tape Vol. 4. The Mix Tapes are a collection of highlights of the best blacktop ballhandlers and passers you've never heard of. The action is sort of like those Nike Commercials, but in actual summer league games.

When I step in the place I see my boy Rafer "Skip" Alston, Milwaukee Bucks point guard and playground baller extraordinaire. "Yo, what's up with CPalm's NBA Life?" says Skip jokingly. "It's blowin' up." Speaking of blowing up, Rafer's all over the And 1 tapes. In fact, if there's no Skip, there are no And 1 mix tapes.

The earliest underground versions were grainy footage of a teenage Alston pulling unimaginable stunts with the ball at Rucker Park in Harlem. Nowadays the Mixes feature the likes of street magicians named Hot Sauce, AO, Hedache, Captain Nappy and Main Event. All of those guys were in the house last night.

I grab AO to talk about what's in his basketball future. At a rail-thin 6-3, his ball fakes and hesitation dribble have become crowd favorites across the country. You've never seen street ball until you've seen AO wrap the rock around some kid's head, bring it back and finish with a no-look touch pass and hear the crowd scream "AAAAAAAAOH!!" The 22-year-old Philadelphia native (real name Aaron Owen) is a former high school teammate of Rasheed Wallace and Aaron Mckie and hopes to be in the Pistons camp this fall. "Man, I was killin' Mateen Cleaves last summer," says AO. "Seriously, I don't think there's anybody who can check me."

At that point my cell rings with the info that KG has stepped in the place. So I go looking for my man to give him some love. On the way, I bump into Ron Naclerio, Rafer's high school coach and father figure. Because of his notoriety as a summer league coach, Naclerio is the self-proclaimed "most famous white man in Harlem."

"Yo, Ron, I just talked to Skip," I say. Mention Skip to Naclerio and be prepared to talk (make that listen) for at least a half hour. "Let me tell you something about Rafer," he shouts. "He's the most famous person you never heard of. Take Allan Houston to a game at the Rucker and everyone will stare at him. Let Rafer walk in 15 minutes later and people will forget that Houston exists. They go crazy when they see him."

Thirty minutes later, I finally spot KG -- who stepped in the party two-and-a-half hours after it started. His trademark diamond stud earrings are blinging in darn near pitch black. This kid's jewelry would shine on the other side of the moon. KG was tucked back in the VIP area and the crowd was intense. There was no hollerin' at him tonight. So I made my way back over to the streetballers, and we talked about hoops the rest of the night and bobbed our heads to the latest hip-hop jams.

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