Why Lego Is the Hottest Off-Court Obsession in Basketball
“You play with Lego” is the kind of dig that Myles Turner, the starting center for the NBA’s Indiana Pacers—and, for years, maybe the only guy in the league known for being an AFOL, or Adult Fan of Lego—has heard a lot.
Like in January of this year, after his team traveled to Detroit to take down their Midwestern rivals, the Pistons. As captured by an NBA fan account on YouTube, the buzzer had just sounded on the Pacers’ 111–100 victory when Pistons bench player Isaiah Stewart appeared out of nowhere, wearing a smirk on his face, to mouth those exact words at Turner, with a finger in Turner’s grill.
That was nothing new. Turner’s been hearing some version of that “you play with Lego” remark since around 2018, when he first Instagrammed a video of one of his Lego builds, a 2,000-piece Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer.
By his own recollection, fans of opposing teams have called the 6-foot-11 Turner a “child.” They’ve joked that he, an elite shot blocker, would rather be “playing with blocks.” Should one of his field goal attempts clank off the rim, the taunting put-downs about “bricks” write themselves.
“I’ve had to take a lot of heat for it,” Turner said in a phone interview. “It’s never really bothered me because it’s something I’m very secure in, you know?”
Nowadays, hoopers—maybe not Stewart, but plenty of others—do know.
The sport of basketball runs increasingly amok with AFOLs like Turner. Over the past year and change, in college and the pros, athletes looking to spend their downtime a little more productively than, say, pitching coins against a wall are routinely, eagerly turning to Lego as their go-to off-court pursuit.
Victor Wembanyama, the San Antonio Spurs phenom and reigning NBA Rookie of the Year, reportedly treated himself to a Star Wars Millennium Falcon set after signing his first league contract. Milwaukee Bucks captain Giannis Antetokounmpo built Captain America’s shield while recovering from an injury in 2024; his wife documented the occasion on her Instagram Story, writing, “If basketball doesn’t work out, I think you have a bright future building Legos!”
This past off-season, in a 22-second TikTok clip, All-American UConn guard Paige Bueckers and teammate Jana El Alfy showed off nearly 20 Lego sets they’d put together, including a Vespa scooter, the house from Up, and a replica of the Great Pyramid of Giza (which we recommend in our guide to the best Lego sets for adults).
The Dallas Mavericks roster is brimming with Lego enthusiasts. You can find bigs Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford, and Anthony Davis all showcasing their builds across social media.
“It’s cool now!” Lively told me in a Zoom interview. (Just two days after we spoke, he auctioned off a “Legos With Lively" shopping spree at a Mavs charity gala for $100,000.) “It’s, like, ‘You’ve gotta try it.’”
Lego has taken notice. After similar collabs with Adidas and Formula 1, the company is planning a partnership with Nike—the sneaker brand synonymous with basketball—teasing “a series of co-branded products, content and experiences” that “[reflect our] shared commitment to put creativity, fun, sport and imagination back into play.”
Turner is all for Lego’s expanding popularity in hoops culture: “I wish more people would do it,” he told me. He might, however, bristle at the word choice in that Lego x Nike statement. As he informed the press after a 2023 In-Season Tournament game, “I build Legos. I don’t play with Legos.”
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