NEWSLETTER
A total of 12 players have been placed into the NBA’s Health and Safety Protocols this season for the Chicago Bulls, and Nikola Vucevic was the one to kick it all off back in early November.
News broke the big man tested positive on November 11th, and his stint in protocols caused him to miss a total of seven games, including the team’s strenuous five-game Western Conference road trip. Fortunately, Vucevic didn’t seem to suffer any lingering side effects, and after one game with a minute’s restriction, he has been able to continuously carry his full workload.
Still, the 26 minutes head coach Billy Donovan held Vucevic to in his first game back were necessary. The thing about protocols is that even if players remain asymptomatic or express only minor symptoms … they are still stuck on their butt for 10 days. For professional athletes who need to keep their bodies right, that’s a lot of missed time in the gym. And what the heck are you supposed to with all that time anyway?
Well, I guess if you’re Nikola Vucevic, you build a crap ton of Legos. The Bulls All-Star center spoke with Rolling Stone recently about his time locked in quarantine, and it appears a handful of Lego sets came through in the clutch.
Alone at his very large condo, the two-time NBA All-Star — all six feet, ten inches and 280 pounds of him — pulled a box of Legos from an ignored drawer and began to build the Batmobile. And a Star Wars battleship. A bust of Darth Vader, too. Vučević responded to some emails and waited out a breakthrough.
If your literal job is to obsessively follow all things Bulls, then you’d know this isn’t the first time Vucevic has mentioned his love for the little plastic bricks.
In a conversation with former teammate Terrence Ross on the TRoss Podcast, Vucevic explained he actually has a secret collection of unbuilt Lego sets that he expects to come very much in handy one day.
“I’m waiting for when I retire, then in the house wherever we live I’m going to build a nice room for myself to build them,” Vucevic said. “That’s something a lot of people didn’t know about me, I love Legos. I just don’t build them know because I’m worried, like, if I get traded I have to move. If the mover was to break my Legos, it would not be good for him.”
Note to self: Don’t ever touch Nikola Vucevic’s Legos.
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As a former Lego-obsessed human being, I can understand where Vucevic is coming from. Few things are more satisfying than locating that stupid small brick that allows you to move on to the next step. Also, as far as keeping your body right goes, Legos require a lot of expert finger movement. Might explain why Vucevic has a TOV% that ranks in the 87th percentile. He’s got those strong Lego-building hands.
