Hello, I’m new to the api, and I would like to know if within tweepy, I can generate a user list based on a search

Ex:
search = NBA

return all profiles that have the name NBA in the name.

In v2 API no, not really but you can use the filter stream if you have academic access

In v1.1 API there’s GET users/search | Docs | Twitter Developer Platform but you need Elevated Access to use it.