Stars come out to put their stamp on NBA Live 08

Gilbert Arenas' time as NBA Live coverboy is off to an interesting start. EA Sports

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- They call Shawn Marion "The Matrix." They call me ... well I don't think I've ever been good enough at anything to elicit a nickname. Marion is reminding me of this as he backs me down in the paint before turning around and dunking the ball on my head.

"Let's see what you got," says Marion. "Bring it."

In terms of mismatches, this one ranks right up there with Appalachian State and Michigan, but outside of one lucky jump shot on my first run down the court there will be no upsets in this "game" (if you can even call our decidedly one-sided matchup that.) Thankfully for me, Marion and I are playing pick-up basketball at the EA Sports studios in Canada and there are XBox 360s and Nintendo Wiis lining the lobby. With no hope of getting the best of Marion in the real world, I'll try to get the best of him in a virtual one, or so I hope.

Marion is in the Great Northwest with Paul Pierce, Channing Frye, Delonte West and Randy Foye for a motion capture session for NBA Live 08, which features Gilbert Arenas on the cover. Arenas was supposed to be at the event as well, hosting a Hibachi cookout and throwing out one-liners but he apparently forgot he was traveling to another country. "I left my passport at home," he said on the phone. "Me and my girlfriend got in an argument so I couldn't go back and get it."

There are already some arguments going down in the lobby as Pierce and the new look Celtics are taking it to the Suns.

"Why you all beating up on us?" asks Marion.

"Because we can," fires back Pierce.

It's the first time Pierce can actually see Boston's "Big Three" running around the parquet in their Celtics uniforms and he can hardly contain himself as he throws the ball down low to Kevin Garnett and swings the ball outside to Ray Allen as he screams out instructions to the flat screen television.

"You can expect this type of match-up between the Suns and Celtics this year," says Pierce. "As you can see KG's cleaning up the glass, he's got 30 [points] and 10 [rebounds], I think that's a realistic number for the big fella. We're going to make things real easy for him."

The folks at EA are not making things easy on Pierce and the rest of the players as they pry them away from the games and make them slip into their skintight motion captures suites, which look like wet suites with barnacles stuck all over them. After a couple minutes inside the suit Pierce is already trying to find a way out of it.

"How do I get out of this?" asks Pierce. "I got to take a do-do."

When producers inform Pierce that he's stuck in the suit for the next couple of hours, he turns to a group of kids and smiles at them. "If you smell something, it's me," he says as the kids laugh. "I'm giving you all a fair warning."

While Pierce tries to get out of the uncomfortably hot threads, Marion and West are beginning to enjoy their new attire. "We're going to go to the club in these," says Marion. "We'll get two tables in the back."

"Yeah," says West, tapping his feet before transitioning into the robot dance. "I could get used to this."

Some players are seeing themselves move around on the big screen in the studio for the first time in their new uniforms with their new teammates. Frye, who was traded to Portland on draft day, starts moving around and pretends to hit a fade away when he sees his virtual self in a Blazers uniform inside of the Rose Garden.

"That's really me running and shooting," he says. "I look good super real."

West, who can't stop doing the robot, echoes the same sentiments as he sees himself in a Sonics uniform after being traded to Seattle on draft day. "They had a poster of me in a Seattle uniform in the lobby," he says. "It was crazy. The guy had the same body structure as me, the same tattoos, the same wristband that I wear, the same facial expression. It was kind of freaky."

The only player who didn't seem overly thrilled with his duds in the game is Marion, who was the subject of trade rumors during the offseason but simply seems content with remaining with the Suns for his eighth season.

"It is what it is," says Marion. "I pay attention to all the rumors, you have to, otherwise people will run over you but it's not my call. At the end of the day I don't have any control over that."

He does, however, have control over our possible rematch, this time on a more even playing field, like a video game, but he conveniently has to hop on a flight back home. "Next time," he says. "Don't worry; I'll dunk on you in the game too."