Panini America On Location: The 2013 NBA Rookie Photo Shoot (Video & Gallery)

August 07, 2013

Panini America 2013 NBA Rookie Photo Shoot Final (8)

TARRYTOWN, N.Y.Anthony Bennett, Victor Oladipo and 34 other top picks from the 2013 NBA Draft descended upon the New York Knicks’ practice facility Tuesday to participate in the high-energy, high-yield, highly entertaining 2013 Panini America NBA Rookie Photo Shoot, slipping into their NBA uniforms to take pictures for the trading cards that will be collected for the rest of their careers.

Panini America occupied one of the two full-sized courts in the massive gymnasium (the NBA set up shop on the other one) and spent the day running the unparalleled assemblage of NBA star power through two action-photography stations, two studio-style stations and a marketing station where each player took turns hijacking the Panini America Twitter account.

To check out the litany of entertaining Tweets the players sent, search the hash tag #PaniniNBARookie.

Off the court in one of the facility’s many media rooms, ESPN spent most of the day conducting live interviews with the likes of Bennett, Oladipo, Nerlens Noel, Tim Hardaway Jr. and C.J. McCollum, discussing the players’ first NBA trading cards and their budding NBA careers.

Panini America officials waited until the end of the shoot to present each player with his own supply of special Next Day Personal Edition cards, which included 60 of their own cards and one complete set of the 36 players in attendance. That gave way to some of the shoot’s most endearing images: Future NBA stars trading with — and signing autographs for — each other like, well, kids.

In the video and gallery that follow, we bring you just some of the day’s highlights. We also provide additional coverage of Monday’s conclusion to the 2013 NBA Rookie Transition Program, where the players finished signing many of their autographs for the upcoming 2013-14 product season.

Stay tuned to The Knight’s Lance for additional coverage of the 2013 NBA Rookie Photo Shoot.

First, the video:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMbx2Krl0uo&w=600&h=338]

Now, the must-see gallery: