Today’s guest article comes from Richard Dryden, a builder, DJ and sneakerhead who has competed on LEGO Masters and helped create the Awesome Black Creativity project.

LEGO Sports and Basketball

According to author of Brick by Brick David C. Robertson, 2003 was a time that the LEGO Group pledged never to return to, fiscally speaking. Yet this is the year that also launched LEGO Sports, which continues its influence more than two decades later through the 2025 LEGO x Nike partnership, specifically with the release of 43010 Nike Slam Dunk and 43021 Nike Dunk Trickshot.

Mini-hoop trickshot, with some inspiration from Dereck Lively II.

The Trickshot is a throwback to 3427 Slam Dunk in its use of a lever to launch the player towards the cup. The latest design is more expansive with the minifigure mounted to a module in the sole of a brick-built Nike Dunk Low. Once engaged, the figure takes off from behind the free throw line, like Michael Jordan in the 1987 NBA Slam Dunk Contest.

The Trickshot accompanies another set featuring a tall poseable figure. The brown-skinned hooper is the focal point of the Slam Dunk model, soaring above the rim. They both serve as bookends in what feels like an unofficial homage to the one-year-run of basketball-focused sets from the inaugural LEGO Sports collection.

It began with nameless, menacing-looking yellow minifigures, equipped with fixed arms and spring loaded legs, able to launch miniature basketballs. Later in ‘03, they evolved into a minifigure series in the likeness of NBA players. This was a bygone era of technological and cultural innovation, produced primarily for basketball fans at the time. The LEGO Group’s partnership with the NBA was a pivotal shift since LEGO first licensed Star Wars in 1999. The impact of the basketball sub-theme of LEGO Sports should be remembered as much as the company’s dodge against bankruptcy and the success of Bionicle.

It’s hard to believe that in 2003 the LEGO Group was on the verge of bankruptcy. Yes, the beloved Danish company known for besting its annual revenue—recently notching 13 percent growth (DKK 74.3 billion)—was once deep in the red. Robertson cited, “2003—the year the rest of LEGO came crashing down—Bionicle’s soaring sales accounted for approximately 25 percent of the company’s total revenue and more than 100 percent of its profit…” With Bionicle, an original IP developed by the LEGO Group made the Danish company a licensor to McDonald’s, General Mills, and Nike.

One of those licensed products was a Bionicle-themed shoe made by Nike, now a grail to some AFOLs. The commitment to designing sneakers for kids, not adults, continued through classic and contemporary silhouettes such as the Nike Dunk Low and Air Max DN, respectively.

Getting a three-pack of NBA minifigures was a big leap for the LEGO Group. Granted, we can now assemble three characters from the build-a-minifigure station at LEGO retail stores, or for a brief period we could purchase a four-pack of Toys ‘R’ Us exclusives. The NBA Collectors were and still are outliers because there was an All-Star in every box (except for Jalen Rose and Tony Kucoc). Packages included display stands and trading cards.

Left photo: 3567 NBA Collectors #8: Tracy McGrady, Chris Webber, Allan Houston, image via Brickset
Right photo from L to R: Shaquille O’Neal, LEGO Trickshot Minifigure, Allan Houston

Despite their miniature size, they picked up where Starting Lineup left off. The brand by Kenner and Hasbro (1988-2001) was a popular toy line that immortalized NBA superstars into statues, packaged with trading cards. As we’ve celebrated Pharrell Williams’s Over the Moon set, which included seven different skin tones and 51 minifigure heads, it was the NBA collection that paved the way with brown and nougat faces.

A Slam Dunk

Nike Slam Dunk bears the most familiarity to real life basketball players. Using the Construction Figure archetype of super heroes like Batman and Spider-Man, the model is also fully-jointed so that it can recreate the flexibility to slam dunk or layup. Mounting the player to the stanchion gives support to the legs, but limits their flexibility.

If I wanted to recreate MJ’s signature dunk pose, synonymous with the Jordan brand logo, I can’t extend the legs from the Technic pins without detaching it from its support beams. I did manage to emulate Jordan’s pose from his black and white “Wings” poster.

“Who said woman was not meant to fly?”

The feet have a magical lift-off moment illustrated in the right foot’s placement on a multicolored wedge. It evokes the explosive position of a sprint runner’s starting block. I actually expected the figure to be more reminiscent of the Lil Penny doll. To be able to play with it unattached would take the figure out into the real world where it could chill out at pool parties, or hang out at a basketball game. This is where some fun modifications to the set could change the game.

The Slam Dunk overall does a great job at capturing the highlight in every fan’s mind. Obviously the hardwood and the tiled crowd seated courtside aren’t in proportion to the player, but it seems intentional if you imagine this figure is a larger-than-life hooper like A’ja Wilson or Ja Morant elevating above the stratosphere where everything below looks tiny.

Decorating the court, the scoreboard and customizing the player’s uniform with three pages of stickers are the chef’s kiss in this build. From the stylish sneakers to the reflective stickers, Nike Slam Dunk is choc full of details that would prompt a snappy catchphrase from legendary New York Knick Walt “Clyde” Frazier—“styling and profiling,… winning and grinning… posting and toasting.”

The Love of the Game

With 43010 Nike Slam Dunk being my first Construction Figure type of set, it hits home to have a brick-built Black athlete. Some of my most formative teenage memories revolved around playing and watching pro basketball. As an adult, outside of watching my son compete, and my one-off pickup games, new experiences building these latest LEGO sets are new chapters for me.

“Street Basketball” by Cecile Fritzvold (2023)

When I saw Cecile Fritzvold’s Brickworld award-winning basketball MOC, I got goosebumps seeing all the classic moments I’ve witnessed on the court frozen in LEGO bricks. Cecile built an entire scene of a playground that could be anywhere in the world, but it felt like the Mecca of basketball—New York City. A huge LEGO graffiti mural was a backdrop for a game of 3 v 3, and an onlooker watching and maybe waiting his turn to step up for a round of 1 v 1.

Takamichi Irie’s series of NBA figures and classic kicks (inspired by Kobe Bryant and Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway) are like the LEGO equivalent of a Stephen Curry highlight reel meets And 1 Mixtape. Each player’s pose is iconic, from Jordan establishing position back-to-the-basket to the deceptive craftiness of Steve Nash’s ball handling. The sculpting of Irie’s kicks, primarily his Kobe’s, are more complex than any brick-built sneaker ever made because of the parts usage and mixture of techniques to achieve a 1-to-1 match.

The Trickshot Playbook

As of now, 43021 Nike Dunk Trickshot feels like it could be the third act to close out this year’s wave of sets from the Nike x LEGO collaboration. I’m speculating, but I believe the rest of the collaboration will be balanced by this fall’s drop of Nike x LEGO-branded sneakers, apparel and sporting goods.

Going for a brick-built low profile shoe aligns with the wearable white Dunk. Similar to this past June’s LEGO x Nike Dunk High, the Dunk Low employs a similar layered design of stacking round corner plates and various types of round corner bricks for the toe box and the heel. SNOT bricks and SNOT brackets to connect the side panels for the Nike Swoosh logo, tongue and heel tab.

There are two dimensions to the Trickshot. Attaching the sneaker to the Technic catapult creates a play function to engage the minifigure in a slam dunk motion to the hoop. The other option is to shoot the ball from the two elements (Technic, Axle 2L with Reverser Handle Axle Connector) mounted at the 3-point arc. Think of this mechanism as a throwback to the NBA minifigures, without the spring-loaded legs.

Shooting without the sneaker attached makes for a faster paced game—you could easily see how many shots you could make in 30 seconds. The artistic backdrop splashes with color and two round printed tiles. Trickshot’s illustration of motion using parallel diagonal lines is consistent with the display beneath the player’s foot in Slam Dunk.

The Games Ahead

During the summer of 2020, I didn’t expect that writing about LEGO MOCs would lead to researching strategic ways in which the LEGO Group would take on new creative partnerships. I wasn’t a MOC builder then, so most of what I covered during that time were MOCs inspired by some of my favorite childhood themes from Ghostbusters to Batman to Classic Space.

In the past two years, I’ve gained confidence to build what was in my head after competing on LEGO Masters. There have been periods through the NBA regular season and post season, when I’ve built tributes to my favorite players: Jalen Brunson, Carmelo Anthony, and Kobe Bryant. The jerseys are my favorite to build because they are a nice balance of simple brick stacking and intricate shaping of letters and numbers depending on the player. I recently found out that brick-built jerseys were on display at the LEGO Group’s pop-up space at this year’s Fanatics Fest. I’m still building my own LEGO jersey wall of fame.

These sets remind me why I love the intersection of design, sneakers, and basketball. Building Slam Dunk and Trickshot brought back the energy of city courts and late-night highlight reels, while opening up new ways to share those stories through LEGO.

Meanwhile, the opportunity to write about official Nike sets for BrickNerd gives me the space to distill all of the thoughts I’ve had about the personal and overall cultural significance of LEGO collaborations. I’m excited to see how LEGO and Nike will frame other sports in bricks, especially as we near the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympics.

Let the games begin.

LEGO 43021 Nike Dunk Trickshot - Front Box - BrickNerd.png

LEGO 43010 Nike Slam Dunk - Front Box - BrickNerd.png

43021 Nike Dunk Trickshot and 43010 Nike Slam Dunk are available for around $40 - $70 each in the US, EU, CA, UK, and AU.

DISCLAIMER: These sets were provided to BrickNerd by LEGO. Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.

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