OTISFIELD – Not likely prone to believing in ghosts, goblins or ghouls before coming to Maine, some of the NBA’s top prospects aren’t quite so sure anymore.

“It was so quiet and dark, you know,” New Jersey Nets’ draft pick (No. 10 overall) Brook Lopez said, “These old Victorian-style houses we’re staying in, they weren’t able to sleep, I guess, like it was haunted or something.”

“I’m used to streetlights all the time at night,” said Derrick Rose, last month’s No. 1 overall draft pick by the Chicago Bulls. “It was dark, man.”

Lopez, his twin brother Robin Lopez (No. 15, Phoenix Suns) and Rose were among the several first-round NBA draft picks to lend a hand Monday at the Seeds of Peace International Camp’s seventh annual Play for Peace basketball clinic.

For most of them, this was not only their first trip to Maine, but their first chance to get away from the hustle and bustle and bright lights of the big cities in which they will be playing.

“It’s been a blur, really,” Brook Lopez said. “I’ve been to so many places – Utah, Orlando, Vegas, home, New Jersey, here – so it’s been pretty busy, and any time you can get downtime, or do something like this, it’s more fun.”

“For me to have this opportunity, it’s amazing,” Rose said. “(Since the draft), it’s been crazy, not knowing where I’m going to live yet, being on the run all the time, not getting any sleep, but it comes with the territory of what I want to do, my profession. I just have to get used to it.”

The fact that so many of the NBA’s top draft picks arrive at Seeds of Peace every summer is directly related to the business side of things. Arn Tellem, president of Wasserman Media Group Management, is the player agent for each of the players at the camp, and is also on the board of directors for Seeds of Peace.

“Every year, this visit becomes an experience as much for the players as it is for the camp participants,” Tellem said in a news release.

On site, B.J. Armstrong, a mainstay with the Chicago Bulls during their dynasty of the 1990s, echoed Tellem’s sentiments.

“For some of these (players), this is the first time they’ve been out in a rural area, away from the metropolitan areas around the country,” Armstrong said. “They talk about how quiet it is here. It’s good to see. For many of them, it’s the first time they get to communicate with people outside of their own cultures. You can forget sometimes that they’re only 19 and 20 years old. They have a good time here, though, and you can see how well they interact with the campers.”

Inside the field house at the Otisfield camp along Pleasant Lake, Rose worked with Anthony Randolph (No. 14 overall, Golden State), D.J. Augustin (No. 9 overall, Charlotte Bobcats), the Lopez twins and Russell Westbrook (No. 4 overall, Oklahoma City). On the court outside Armstrong held camp with the Celtics’ Brian Scalabrine, the Lakers’ Jordan Farmar and former WNBA star Sue Wicks.

Since 1993, Seeds of Peace has graduated more than 4,000 teenagers from four recognized conflict regions from its leadership program. Through the international camp in Otisfield, the goal is to plant the idea of peace in the minds of the leaders of tomorrow, with the ultimate goal to help bring peace to the Middle East. More than 150 campers took part in Monday’s basketball clinic, and they left nearly as big an impression on the basketball stars as the stars left with them.

“I love working at camps like this, and I really like this area,” Brook Lopez said. “This is something I’d do again, in a heartbeat.”

“The biggest message we send with an event like this, to our players, is to get out of yourself,” Armstrong said. “They’re in such high-pressure situations playing in the NBA, but here, they have a chance to step outside of themselves, get outside of their own communities, of their cities, and share and expose themselves to a whole other world, a new culture.”

The players and campers, it appears, share more than just a love for basketball, after all.