The inspiration for the episode was a deleted scene from the pilot episode where Michael talks about a pick-up basketball game. During filming, the cast and crew were filmed playing real basketball games for two days. The takes were then spliced together to make it appear as if only one game had taken place. NBC was worried about the episode because several of their other pilots had done basketball episodes. The network put a lot of pressure on the cast and crew to make the episode appear "as realistic as it could be." Donald Lee Harris designed the warehouse set, which Krasinski described as "amazing" and "detailed."