How the freak are Shaquille O’Neal and Tony Parker the same size?!?
I understand it’s LEGO, but this just proves that some things don’t need to be made.

As a huge basketball AND LEGO fan, I love these sets!!
Wish I bought them all when I first saw them in store like 16-17 years ago, but alas I was in the middle of my Dark Ages then ….
And now they are very expensive and quite hard to find (even via BrickLink), particularly in Australia
:(
I’ll have to console myself with the LEGO NBA court with the non-NBA players (picked up for like A$45, and works nicely as a game with the kids), and keep looking around for the full NBA stadium set (with the large blue “bowl” pieces”) at a price less than A$300!

The comment above about Vince Carter being the last LEGO NBA player still playing is correct - he retired last year when the NBA season was suspended due to COVID, after a record 22 seasons with a variety of teams!

Being a huge Iverson fan I searched for his figures, and picked up a few others. Not sure if I have this one.

Oh well, they were a fun gimmick.

So, anyone want to photoshop a Lego version of the Shaq “i sleep, real BLEEP” meme?

With the springs in their legs and the stretched arms with immobile hands these guys always looked more like minifig knockoffs than actual official Lego

Not even being a particular basketball fan, I liked these then, and still like them. Not sure which ones I have exactly. Probably this one here is among them.
I agree with LegoDavid, these would be a success today. Much more than then.

At last...those faces!

Given that my local LEGO store usually had a massive pile of those spring legs for custom figs, I'm guessing there was a massive surplus...

Too bad only the torsi are of use now.

So creepy, the face proportions are so off.

Always loved the sports crossovers. Randomly picked up 3433 sealed last summer in a local auction to go with 3578 and 3409 (both used not NIB). Just wishing Lego would have done a collab with the MLB before those off-brand figs started getting sold in stadiums

I dunno, I always feel a little weird about minifigures who represent real people. Movie-based minifigures are somewhat a different ball game to me since, while they are technically also based off real people, they generally represent the *character role* rather than the actor or actress personally; but sets that are of sports stars or other famous people don't have that distinction to hide behind.

Granted, I had the Zidane minifigure from 3401-2, possibly the first official real-person minifigure, and didn't think much odd of it as a kid; then again, I also didn't really think of him as representing the actual person either, just as some guy wearing branded merchandise xD

Still, a pack of five minifigures, with stands and cards, wasn't bad for £5! Too bad you only get a single minifig for that price nowadays...

absolutely cursed

The springs are fun... I picked up one from a bunch of random bricks a few years ago...

What's also interesting about these figures is, that they have printed hair on the top side of their heads! Whilst the print-on-the-top gimmick has appeared elsewhere (Power Miners for example) it still was pretty scarce after the Sports line got cancelled.

Oh and they also used the same figure stands as the 12 minifigure packs from 2000 (Star Wars, Rock Raiders, Ninja and City Center), just with a different logo embossed on it.

I was today year old when I learnt some basketball players came in two variants of shirt colours. I never realized this because I'm not into NBA and never bothered to have a closer look at the sets. Until just now when I looked at that real life people tag. Especially because I wasn't into it then and most of these people have probably moved on from the position they were representing in these sets.

I always assumed they had a huge amount of players represented, considered the amount of these packs that were released at the time.

Edit: I just found out the large court has most of the shirt recolours. But two figs in that set also appear in the NBA collectors series. Just bizarre.

@kyrodes said:
"One of the few minifigs based on real people

https://brickset.com/minifigs/tag-Real-People "

Why is Zidane not on that list ? it was the first one in 2000.

3401-2 : Shoot 'n' Score (Zidane Edition)

It's also the only figure I have of a real person.

@TeriXeri said:
" @kyrodes said:
"One of the few minifigs based on real people

https://brickset.com/minifigs/tag-Real-People "

Why is Zidane not on that list ? it was the first one in 2000.

3401-2 : Shoot 'n' Score (Zidane Edition)

It's also the only figure I have of a real person."

Good call! Speaking of which, set 3401-1 and 3401-1 might have some use for a 'related' tab as they're practically the same set. If someone looks at 3401-1 it might be fun for them to find out about 3401-2.

@MainBricker said:
"It should be noted that these were the first minifigures to have real skin tones.

I bought some of these as it was the only way I could get a Lando type figure for Star Wars, as Lego kept dodging Lando in SW as all the figures were yellow."

I do wonder what would have happened if they had released a yellow Lando.

@Binnekamp said:
"I was today year old when I learnt some basketball players came in two variants of shirt colours. I never realized this because I'm not into NBA and never bothered to have a closer look at the sets. Until just now when I looked at that real life people tag. Especially because I wasn't into it then and most of these people have probably moved on from the position they were representing in these sets.

I always assumed they had a huge amount of players represented, considered the amount of these packs that were released at the time.

Edit: I just found out the large court has most of the shirt recolours. But two figs in that set also appear in the NBA collectors series. Just bizarre."

The thing is that is a real part of NBA teams to have a home and an away jersey variant for when a team plays. Many amateur basketball leagues for kids imitate that too, with the jerseys having a different color printed on the inverse so they can be flipped around for home or away games. Home jerseys are usually the iconic outfits used for promotional shots, but certainly aren't the only jersey variant many teams have.

In the last few years though many teams have introduced even more jersey variants, some retro inspired by jerseys past, or stuff like "the Citys" line that is supposed to represent various aspects of the locale were the team plays. For example my local NBA team (The Utah Jazz) has a City themed jersey that is various shades of orange and red based on red rock country along with a few retro jerseys all in circulation along with their primary two colors for "home" and "away" games.

This is... um... a "high point" to start following Random Sets of the Day on. I associated the basketball sets with LEGO's nadir as it was happening, and gettig some of them used a couple years ago didn't improve my opinions of them. A less-than-middling interest in basketball and a distaste for fleshie figs (and falling on the licence-averse side of the fence generally) doesn't help.

Nightmare fuel.

I have no interest in basketball, but I love minifigs, so therefore bought all 8 sets of these triple fig packs when they were out.
I remember buying a few a week at a local shop one during each of my lunch hours - convincing myself that I was not spending as much money buying them all separately, instead of spending out for them all in one purchase !

@MainBricker:
You know what was right on the heels of these sets? 10123, with a brown Lando. The only old-brown Lando, specifically. NBA may have had the first fleshies, but 10123 is the reason nearly all licensed minifigs are fleshies now.