The LEGO Basketball subtheme of Sports that ran from 2003 to 2005. In the first year, 2003, sets were licensed by the NBA and were based on real games, court games, and simple street games. The minifigures in this theme had spring-loaded legs and specially designed hands so players can shoot, pass and even reverse slam dunk. These minifigures also featured more realistic skin tones, being based on real-life NBA players from real teams.
2004 LEGO Sets
2004 was a shakeup year at LEGO, coming off of 2003 with record losses. Some significant events include the release of the QUATRO System for very young children, and most notably the replacement of many long-standing LEGO colors including gray, dark gray, brown and violet and the introduction of some new colors like light nougat which ultimately became the skin tone for many minifigures. In 2004, The LEGO Group created a partnership with Ferrari and a number of LEGO Ferrari sets were released that year based on Ferrari’s Formula 1 racing cars. New themes released in 2004 included Maersk, Knight's Kingdom II and Ferrari under the Racers theme. LEGO discontinued the Adventurers Orient Expedition, the original Spider-Man theme, LEGO World City and Gravity Games.