Several of the actors had basketball experience, such as Krasinski, who played for his high school team. Brian Baumgartner, who portrays Kevin, actually succeeded in making 14 free-throw shots, of which several were included in the final footage. Steve Carell later said of his basketball skills, "The thing about looking like you're bad at basketball is, it's like anything else, you have to be incredibly good in order to look bad [… but that's not the case with me and basketball. I just was bad." However, Carell joked that he would "kick ass" at a hockey episode, a reference to his real-life hockey skills.