NBA Jam Session heats up; security beefs up for All-Star weekend

One-hundred thousand NBA fans are expected to attend the four-day NBA Jam Session event during the NBA All-Star weekend.

In addition to appearances by NBA and WNBA stars, Friday night's jam session includes an all-star celebrity match-up with players from the Grammy stage to the Jersey shore.

The All-Star Jam Session may just be the next best thing to attending Sunday's sold-out NBA All-Star game. And at $20 per ticket for adults this Friday and $30 per ticket this weekend, the Jam Session may also be fans' best shot at seeing an NBA all-star.

NBA All-Star Lebron James is one of the judges in Friday's Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown, in a competition allowing fans to show off their skills. And Friday night, Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard and Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant will serve as the East and West Coast judges for the Sprint NBA All-Star celebrity game.

But even the All-Stars recognize they might not be the only draw to Central Florida.

"It has attractions, obviously Disney, SeaWorld. It has a great arena, brand-new arena. So those three things attract people to come here," said Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics.

In between the celebrity matchups, fans can test their own NBA skills whether they're dribbling, dunking or passing the ball.

And between Thursday's tip-off of the All-Star Jam Session and the buzzer at Sunday's All-Star game, tens of thousands of fans will have visited the Orange County Convention Center to be part of the festivities surrounding this year's All-Star event.

Those fans are supposed to be pumping $80 million to $100 million into Orlando's economy, but Orlando taxpayers are spending millions on police protection. Bomb-sniffing dogs have swept the Amway Center and are checking every vehicle coming into the fenced-in compound.

This is first time since World Cup Soccer in 1994 that Orlando has organized the same kind of massive security effort. Orlando Police Chief Paul Rooney expects even more people for the NBA All-Star events.

"It is a national security risk and we've worked very closely with the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI," Rooney said.

All 750 of OPD's sworn officers are working this weekend. Their schedules were rearranged to cut down on overtime, but the chief can't guess how much overtime alone will cost.

"No, no, as chief of police, my direction was to maintain a safe environment for the community and for the public and that's what I'm going to do," Rooney said.

He said he believes he can do it without asking for extra money from the city.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office is budgeting $274,000 for overtime and another 15 agencies across the state are helping OPD with security at their own expense.

It's using all its bomb-sniffing dogs, and borrowing another 16. OPD's horses were resting up Friday, but they'll all be working this weekend along with another 16 horses from other agencies.

A command center has been set up at the city's emergency operations center.

Rooney said the department has devised a system that will keep track of every police response related to the All-Star weekend so when it's all over, he will know exactly how much it will cost.