Old Ball Talks NBA All-Star Game, Dunk Contest, '90s NBA

"First and foremost, we're good friends. We've known each other for 10 years-plus, and have worked on a bunch of different stuff together throughout the years. Ben's the Jim Henson-level genius that's behind the fabrication of Old Ball and the design of it. I've known about Ben's super-power since I've met him, and I've always wanted to do some sort of animatronic puppet-in-the-real-world idea."

"We feel like there's something familiar about a basketball. Rather than creating just an alien creature or something, we could actually insert this into a world that already exists. Old Ball has this feeling of late-'80s, '90s. And I think it's a throwback to these eras that we just have a lot of reverence for."

Old Ball is a wise-cracking animatronic basketball that has achieved viral success across the NBA community. Created by Ben Bayouth, Christian Heuer, and Adam Aseraf—Emmy-nominated Funny Or Die alumni—the character has amassed over 438,000 Instagram followers and 251,000 TikTok followers. The trio recently formed Benched Studios to produce Old Ball's content and other projects. Old Ball's design intentionally evokes the late 1980s and 1990s basketball era, reflecting a period the creators deeply appreciate. The animatronic's success culminated in an official appearance at the 2026 All-Star Game at Intuit Dome, cementing its status as a significant force in basketball entertainment.

Read at Bleacher Nation