LAS VEGAS — The players and celebrities touched down first in their private jets. Entourages, hustlers, groupies and plain old basketball fans followed by any means available.

They began to invade Las Vegas in earnest Thursday night, filling the cool desert air from the Fremont Street to the bottom of the Strip with an anticipatory buzz matched only by a title fight or New Year's Eve. Bars and clubs were packed, while lines for cabs stretched around corners — and the check-in lines at most hotels weren't much better.

This town soon was packed to its glitzy, lightbulb-festooned rafters for the NBA's ambitious, adventurous All-Star weekend and the accompanying four-day party that could be a landmark event in Las Vegas history — and a catalyst for many more years of pro basketball to come.

"This is the place to be, the party of the year," Washington All-Star Gilbert Arenas said. "Wasn't no way I wanted to miss this one."

Only a select few of these Vegas visitors actually have tickets for Saturday's skill events and Sunday's game. The rest will congregate outside and inside, in casinos and clubs, relishing this unprecedented collision of a fame-centric sport's most star-studded event in a fun-loving town like no other.

It's also the NBA's first attempt to hold the game outside one of its member cities. But if Mayor Oscar Goodman and a host of forward-thinking league officials have their way, this hot spot on the weather map could be even hotter with an NBA team as its first major-league sports franchise.

"I think it's a good match," said the Lakers' Kobe Bryant, though he's against a Vegas team because "we get all their fans right now."