How do you imagine a famous 29-year-old multi-millionaire NBA player prefers to unwind after a big game? Hitting up a nightclub? Cruising in a Maserati? Pouring drinks in a penthouse? 

Not Myles Turner. He builds Legos.  

Yes, the Bucks’ newest big-name player – he signed for $107 million in July after a decade of putting up numbers as an Indiana Pacer – comes home after games at Fiserv Forum, spreads out hundreds of plastic bricks, flattens an instruction booklet, and builds Star Wars ships, Super Mario characters, dinosaurs and much more.  

And this isn’t just some small-time hobby.  

“I have a house in Austin and I have a house in Dallas, and honestly, I ran out of space in both houses,” the Texas-born Turner says of his Lego collection. (Note: Turner makes it clear that he does not “play with” Legos; he “builds” them.) He estimates that his multi-house Lego trove totals over 150,000 bricks at the very least and is worth “many thousands of dollars.”

In those Texas homes, you’ll find Turner’s personal favorite set – the Death Star – along with a 9,000-piece Titanic replica and a life-size Lego figure of Turner as Darth Vader – a gift from his mother and Indiana teammates.  

150,000  

Estimated bricks in Turner’s Lego collection  

Death Star  

Turner’s favorite set 

2   

Houses needed to store the vast trove 

6 hours/week, 25 sets/year  

Turner’s average estimated Lego workload 

107,000  

The number of Lego Death Stars Turner could buy with his Bucks contract 

10,000  

Bricks that make up the Eiffel Tower, Turner’s largest set 

The pieces in his Milwaukee apartment aren’t quite as imposing, but they are impressive, spilling over from his desk to other rooms. Lining a large shelf, there’s another Death Star replete with intricate ship details and populated by Lego characters, an elegant Venetian home, a colorful, swirling Milky Way galaxy, Van Gogh’s Starry Night and a Lego tuxedo cat friend for Turner’s real-life cat, Casper. (Not Lego, but equally eye-catching is Turner’s full-size Iron Man statue wearing a cheesehead labeled “Myles.”)  

Turner estimates that he spends about six hours a week building and completes at least 25 sets a year. “My time is consumed by basketball. This is a way to shut all that out,” he says. “I put some music on, I’m by myself, and I get this mental clarity. … But I now have a girlfriend in my life and that doesn’t really allow for as much time as I used to have.”

Legos have, in fact, worked their way into his relationship with his girlfriend, Aysia Janelle – the couple have a Lego globe dotted with hearts marking the places they’ve visited.  

Turner’s collection has its roots in his childhood. When he was 6 years old, his father bought him Bionicles, a since-discontinued line of Lego creatures. From there, “I just started free building,” Turner says.  

The hobby fell off in high school and while he was playing college basketball at Texas, but during his first season in the league in 2015, 19-year-old Turner discovered that “there really wasn’t that much for me to do in Indianapolis.” 

Looking to fill time after practice, he bought a couple of sets, and the nostalgia “started unlocking memories.” The collection spiraled from there. Turner remembers building a 6,000-piece Millennium Falcon and trying to move it himself, messing up the breakdown process, and then working until 7 a.m. to put it back together. (These days, he uses a specialty move service to transport the fragile builds.) 

Now, his Instagram account lights up whenever he posts his latest creation – a fan even gave him a Nike Lego set when he arrived in Milwaukee. 

“It’s funny because back in the day, I was made fun of for it a lot,” Turner says. “Now, a few years later, it’s cool and popularized and everybody loves Legos. I never did it for a social media reaction – it’s just this hobby I love.” 

And he’s bringing it to local schools. In December, he visited MPS’ MacDowell Montessori to build Legos with kids, something he hopes to continue doing. “It was cool to encourage them to tap into creative expression,” he says. “No matter what age, it’s important to have that outlet.”