The Quirky Hobby WNBA All-Star Allisha Gray Swears By for Relaxing Before Bed

In SELF’s Sleeping With… series, we ask people from different career paths, backgrounds, and stages of life how they make sleep magic happen.

With her third consecutive WNBA All-Star appearance fast approaching, you might think that Atlanta Dream guard Allisha Gray would be battling a case of nerves. Not only is the stage a massive one, but she’ll also have to follow up her über-impressive showing at last year’s All-Star Weekend, where she became the first hooper to win both the WNBA Skills Challenge and the 3-Point Contest in the same season. “For me to win both of ’em, I mean, it was an amazing feeling,” she tells SELF via Zoom leading up to 2025’s big game, which will be held on July 19. “It was cool to make history. That was just a great accomplishment in my career.”

In another milestone, this year marks the first time Gray has earned a starting nod for the All-Star game. In fact, she’s only the second player in the history of the Atlanta Dream to be named an All-Star in three straight seasons, and she’s the first Dream player to start in an All-Star Game since 2018. “Just being an All-Star is an honor within itself, but this season, being an All-Star starter, that’s even more exciting,” she says.

So yes, the pressure is on—but somehow, Gray is chilling. Overthinking, she reveals, is something her dad taught her to avoid (“Just play free,” she says), and that advice has clearly served her well throughout her career (as accolades like her 2017 Rookie of the Year title, her Olympic gold medal in 3×3 basketball, and her soon-to-be three All-Star appearances show). “I’m at my best when I don’t overthink, because when you tend to overthink, it affects other parts of your game,” she says. “So for me, I just let it go in one ear and out the other.”

While, sure, it would be nice to pull off a victory (not to mention win either or both the Skills Challenge and 3-Point Contest again), her primary mission for the 2025 All-Star Weekend is pretty down-to-earth: “I’m just going in…to have fun,” she says. With a few days to go until tip-off, SELF caught up with Gray to ask how she preps for bed after a long day, since a good night’s sleep is key to a high-powered on-court performance. Below, you’ll find all the details.

I’ll start by kicking back with a show or two.

After practice, I come home, take a nice, hot shower, warm up my meal—we get food at the gym, so what I eat depends on whatever the chef makes that day—and sit down. I’m usually home by 4 p.m. Depending on how I’m feeling, either I’m watching YouTube videos or I’m on Hulu or Netflix. I’m heavy on YouTube. I love YouTube. That’s probably my favorite thing to be on. I’m so into YouTube that I have YouTube Premium because I don’t like the ads interrupting my videos.

I watch a lot of golf videos on YouTube since I’m a big fan of the sport. I actually go golfing myself a lot, probably on the majority of all my off days. Rhyne Howard [Gray’s close friend and fellow Dream teammate] is my golf buddy, so we go golfing together all the time. I even travel with my golf clubs, so anytime I get a chance to go on the course, I do. [Editor’s note: Howard was named to the 2025 All-Star team as a reserve, but was forced to drop out after injuring her left knee in a game against the Fever on July 11.]

Golf is just something that helps me take my mind off the game of basketball and have fun doing something else in life. Plus, I’m outside getting my vitamins and stuff like that. Basketball is an inside game, so golf is cool because you get to kind of enjoy nature as well. But I haven’t played any golf tournaments, like pro-ams. It’s strictly a hobby for me.

If I’m on Hulu, I’m probably watching Next Level Chef with Gordon Ramsay, or Master Chef. I can’t cook, but I just like watching other people do it. I’m competitive, so it is cool seeing other people compete and watching them cook under pressure. It’s just so fascinating how they can make so many cool dishes in under 30 minutes.

I also love Abbott Elementary, but right now I’m caught up on it and no new episodes are out, so I’m waiting for that new season to drop.

Then, I’ll start building on my Legos.

I think probably the end of last WNBA season was when I first started building Legos. I was just in the store one day looking for something to do, and I went over to the Lego section and grabbed the Legos, and then from there on I was hooked. I started out kind of simple, and now I’m deep in that lifestyle. I love building Legos. When I’m at home, I probably build Legos almost every single day. How long depends on the size of the set. If it’s, like, a real big one, I probably work on that thing for a good five hours, not even going to lie. Straight through.

I’m a huge Marvel fan—my favorite character of all time is Iron Man, even though he’s no longer with us—so Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy was my first Lego set I built. I don’t know the exact time it took me, but I definitely finished that one in one day. Just turned on my music and jumped in.

From there on, I kind of stayed with Marvel and Star Wars sets, and then I started expanding. Now, if I’m in a store and I see a cool Lego set, I’ll get it. I recently just finished a car—a McLaren—and that set was more than 1,000 pieces, so it took about a week. Rhyne and I actually built that one together, sitting there, adding the pieces on. We build Legos together, we golf together, we pretty much do everything together. That’s my best friend.

I tackle one Lego project at a time. One that I should have been finished with by now is my Captain America shield. That’s probably my favorite—I was vlogging the build on TikTok—so I need to finish that one soon. I got down to my last bag of pieces during training camp in April, but then once the season started, I got busy, and then I went to other Lego projects. But other than that, normally when I do a Lego set, I stick to that one, then I go to my next one.

Like golf, it is just something that can help, once again, get my mind away from the game and let me digest. It gives me something to do other than being focused on basketball. Just another outlet.

Once I’m done building Legos, I’ll go brush my teeth and get ready for bed.

I love my toothbrush. It is a Burst electric toothbrush, and it’s cool because it has this mold that helps you brush all four quadrants of your mouth, so it makes sure it covers every area. I use Colgate toothpaste and Therabreath mouthwash.

And then when I shower, I use EOS body wash in the vanilla cashmere scent. It’s really soothing. Besides that, I also love Vaseline’s cocoa butter lotion. Cocoa butter always leaves my skin feeling smooth, so I’ll spread that everywhere.

To be honest, I don’t use too many products because for me, it’s genetics. I was just blessed with good skin. I can just literally use soap and water and I’m good. No makeup, anything. But I do use the Sephora Topicals glossy lip balm. It’s like a lip gloss, kind of, and it lasts on your lip throughout the whole day.

Then it’s time for video games, a book, and bed!

Once I’m done in the bathroom, I’ll play some video games. I have a Lenovo Legion handheld gaming device, so I’ll play Tomb Raider on that for a couple hours. I started gaming when I was six. It started as a fun way to bond with my brothers. I love games with action and strong female-led storylines, and Tomb Raider checks all those boxes.

Then, I’ll read some chapters in my book. Right now, I’m reading Legendborn by Tracy Deonn [a YA fantasy novel about a girl who infiltrates a magical secret society], but also, I’ve always been drawn to books about history. I enjoy learning how things came to be—how people, places, and stories evolve over time.

I try to be in bed by 9 or 10 o’clock. No later than 10:30 p.m.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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