Everyone Hates The New NBA Game Ball (But No One's Bitching As Much As Shaq).

[GangstaBoogy]

It's obvious the new ball is slippery. Look at how many steals every is getting. Didn't Stoudemire just get 5?

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

It's obvious the new ball is slippery. Look at how many steals every is getting. Didn't Stoudemire just get 5?

I have a feeling that leather will be back, maybe not by the regular season, but I'm seeing too much "sloppiness" with this ball to keep it...

[Tha G In Deee]

LMAO @ Sam Cassell

Sam Cassell-
Let me see
*grabs the basketball and rubs it*
It's round...
*dribbled a couple of times*
It bounces...
I LOVE that muthafucka!

^LMAO!!!

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Coming to grips with new NBA ball
Players don't understand reason for new ball, but league says they'll have to learn to handle it

02:57 PM CDT on Wednesday, October 18, 2006
By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News

It took Dirk Nowitzki to come up with a positive spin on the NBA's new basketball, which has been ripped by players coast to coast.

The Mavericks' star zeroed in on the synthetic ball's consistent feel as a selling point.

"If it's played with for two months or if it's brand new, it feels bad," Nowitzki says. "So at least they accomplished that."

And so it goes for the NBA. Whether it's physicists doing comparative research on the new ball or players giving it the ultimate test of how it feels, reacts and plays during a game, the league's change from leather to a microfiber composite ball - pleather, if you will - has created a controversy that has only just begun.

The storm may grow so severe, commissioner David Stern could reconsider the wisdom of the change, although a return to the old ball isn't likely this season.

The league decided during the summer to ditch the leather ball it had been using for 35 years. Spalding produced a synthetic ball that has been met with rave reviews by the league office and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

But by those who actually play the game? Not so much.

"I'm dying to get the feel of that old leather ball back," Mavericks point guard Anthony Johnson says. "I go to sleep every night dreaming that we'll have that leather ball back sooner or later. Until then, I'll just keep my fingers crossed."

The NBA has been aggressive in its defense of the new ball, which may end up becoming Stern's new Coke. He may yet have to go back to Coke Classic.

The biggest questions: Why change the ball? Was it broke?

'Ready to play'
Stu Jackson, the NBA's president of operations, says the league believes the composite ball is a better product than the leather version. That it has a better grip and feel, a longer lifespan and will perform the same from arena to arena and game to game.

Players, Jackson says, should try to get used to the ball rather than belabor any perceived faults.

"Our plan is to play with this ball in the '06-07 season, subject to continual testing," he says. "We take the game very seriously, and we saw a chance to improve the game with a product that is better than the old ball. The feedback is something we welcome and have solicited. That's not an issue."

Neither is the monetary aspect. Official game-ball sales constitute less than 1 percent of Spalding's revenue. Spalding researchers claim that the ball is superior and, most important, more consistent than the leather predecessor.

The NBA's new synthetic ball has been met with rave reviews by the league office and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. But not by those who actually play the game. After about 50 preseason games, shooting and free throw percentages and the number of turnovers were only marginally different from the same period last season, according to Jackson.

"The years of testing we've done have produced a more consistent, more durable ball that levels the playing field for all players and teams," says Dan Touhey, Spalding's vice president for marketing and research development.

"The leather ball had been around for ages, and it was a good ball. But if you looked at a rack of 12 leather balls, you'd have balls that were in 12 different stages. They were like infielders' gloves. They had to be broken in before you could use them. The new ball is ready to play when it arrives and provides a better grip."

Touhey said the company has done grip tests that reinforce that claim. Those tests also show that a leather ball will pick up as much as 70 grams of water weight during a game because of the way it absorbs sweat. Touhey said the surface of the new ball resists moisture.

'A definite difference'
There is no question the ball is different. Its dimensions are the same, but the feel of the cover is not. And the ball reacts differently, too, say a couple of local physicists.

Jim Horwitz is chair of the physics department at UT-Arlington, and Kaushik De is the project leader and a physics professor at UTA. They were asked by Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to do a study about the differences between composite and leather balls.

What the physicists found was that the new ball, when dropped from a height of five feet, bounced an average of four inches lower than the old ball. In addition, the synthetic ball was much slower to absorb moisture, a key complaint among players who seem to be constantly losing their grip on the new spheroid in the preseason.

"When water came in contact with both balls, the leather ball absorbed it more quickly and was more easily gripped," Horwitz says. "We suspect that will be the biggest difference in the physical characteristics of the balls."

Horwitz and De are not being paid by Cuban, and their research is ongoing. They plan to research with friction tests how the ball reacts to hardwood flooring and human skin, as well as spin control.

Another complaint of players is that the ball does not react the same off the backboard, making bank shots more adventurous.

Touhey acknowledges that the ball reacts differently when coming off the backboard, but that college, WNBA and NBDL players all have adapted to the changes quickly. The NCAA has used composite balls in its tournaments for the last four seasons.

"I was curious what the facts are," Cuban said of his idea to have local researchers test the ball. "Rather than speculating, I asked the profs to actually do a test, to give us real data. The results support there is a definite difference."

The NBA, of course, tested the ball many times over. It was used in the All-Star Game last season. Even then, it was met with near-universal disapproval.

"I don't like them at all," Nowitzki says. "I said that last year in the All-Star Game. I think we even shot the 3-point contest with them [Nowitzki won that event].

"A lot of the players have the same problem. It's too sticky. And when it's wet, it's slippery."

Not everybody hates the new ball. PETA officials have applauded the NBA's move as another triumph for animal rights activists.

"For us, it's a really exciting victory," says PETA spokesman Dan Shannon. "It's another step forward in technology that has allowed us to replace an animal product with a synthetic.

"A lot of industries are going to more humane products."

Of course, if Stern rescinds the decision to use the ball (and the door has been left open) it'd whip up a firestorm from the animal rights group. According to PETA's Web site, "it takes the skin of a whole cow to make just four basketballs."

It should be noted, Touhey says, that "not a single cow will live because we changed to a composite ball." The company acquired leather from meat producers that had already removed the skin.

'We'll get used to it'
In the long run, ballgate might end up being little more than a tempest in a teapot. NBA players were upset a year ago when the league enacted a dress code. Now, it's an accepted part of the league.

However, what the players wear and what they dribble on the court are radically different issues.

"We'll get used to everything, I guess," says Nowitzki. "I don't know if it's going to affect shooting or turnovers. We'll have to see. We all know this league is about business, too. I think we're all professionals, and we'll get used to it."

Approximate dimensions: 9.5 inches in diameter, 567 to 602 weight in grams, 29.5 inches in circumference

[WC Iz Active]

FUCK STERN AND THE REST OF HIS PUPPETS!! The players dont like the new ball hence they are the ones playing in the games.  BRING BACK THE OLD BALL!!

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Players say change isn't good for game

BY JOHN DENTON
FLORIDA TODAY  Post a Comment   View All Comments 

ORLANDO - Imagine if the gear shifts on that forklift were flip-flopped or the keyboard on that work computer were suddenly jumbled into an all-new configuration.

Imagine going through those changes in your daily job and you can get a slight glimpse into the frazzled psyche of many NBA players these days.

For just the second time in its 60-year history and the first time in 36 seasons, the NBA has changed its basketball. Out is the familiar brownish-orange leather basketball palmed in arenas throughout the country by Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. In its place is a bright orange, microfiber composite ball that is identical to its predecessor in only its shape.

Spalding, provider of NBA balls since 1983, boasts in a release that the new version has "better grip, feel and consistency" than the one in play for the past four decades.

But there are plenty of players in the NBA who vehemently disagree with that assessment. Boiled down, their complaints are as such: The ball is too sticky when dry and too slippery when wet.

Changing the ball, when there was no outcry from anyone not affiliated with People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals, has already thrown some NBA players for a loop. In many of their eyes, this is akin to the PGA cutting 6 inches off Tiger Woods' putter, baseball whittling down Albert Pujols' bat or the NFL stripping the laces off Peyton Manning's footballs.

Protest is usually a reflex reaction to change, but this riff isn't likely to die down anytime soon. Change the off-the-court dress code, change the length of shorts or even the length of the court, but not the ball, Atlanta star shooting guard Joe Johnson said.

"When it's dry, it's very sticky and when it's wet, it's slick," Johnson said prior to Atlanta's game against the Orlando Magic on Tuesday night. "For a shooter, the ball doesn't roll off your fingertips like the other ball did. It's uncomfortable. Everybody hates it. The dress code is one thing, but the ball? (Dang)!"

Each NBA player was mailed a new ball last summer when the league made the switch official in June, but it has done little to temper the furor. Star players across the NBA have come out almost universally opposing it. Shaquille O'Neal referred to it having the feel of "one of those cheap balls you buy at the toy store."

Not even a dunker like New Jersey's Vince Carter likes the ball, predicting that "it's going to be a problem," and adding that "it's like playing with a bowling ball."

And don't even get NBA bad boy Rasheed Wallace started about the new ball. Wallace has gotten a technical foul for disputing practically everything in the NBA, but fuming about the ball is a new one to him.

"It's terrible. I don't know why they did it," Wallace told The Detroit Free-Press. "Good Lord, don't let it get wet. They try to say it's a better ball, microfibers and this and that. It's terrible. Give me that good old-fashion cowhide."

There is a hope shared by many that because of the league-wide outcry from coaches, like Chicago's Scott Skiles, and players like Kobe Bryant and O'Neal that the NBA will change back before the start of the regular season on Oct. 31. But NBA Commissioner David Stern has given no such indication the league is about to do that, citing that composite balls are used at the high school, college and international levels of basketball.

Magic small forward Hedo Turkoglu, one of the league's top 3-point shooters, grew up playing with a similar composite ball in Turkey and says he has no problems with the switch. But the light-hearted Turkoglu did reserve the right to change his mind if he endures a prolonged shooting slump this season.

"Some guys are used to the other ball, but when you are a great shooter like me it doesn't matter," Turkoglu said as he broke out in laughter. "It's kind of slippery, that's true and you can't hide that.

"I'm not having a lot of problems, but if I'm missing shots I'm just going to blame it on the ball."

The NBA debuted the new balls in the past two midseason all-star games and in the free-agent summer leagues before announcing the full-time switch last June. And the perks were immediately noticeable: The balls don't have to be broken in, they remain the same color and they are softer to the touch.

Like with changing the off-the-court dress code and banning the compression leggings made popular last season by Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, changing the ball was a right the NBA could impose unilaterally without consulting the NBA Players Association. Switching something as important as the ball without more input has galled many players, said Magic forward and Players Association treasurer Pat Garrity.

"Players in general, I've heard it from a number of guys, they're upset that they didn't have a lot of input," said Garrity. "They demoed it in the all-star game, but by in large, it caught a lot of people by surprise."

Many dunkers, like Orlando's Dwight Howard, who led the NBA in stuffs last season with 214, have said they have no problem with the ball because its stickiness helps them easily palm the ball.

Ball-handlers and shooters, however, have a dramatically different take. Because the ball is allegedly too sticky when dry, guards say it tends to stick to their hands and they are unable to make certain passes or dribbles as they have in the past.

And some shooters have complained that because of the stickiness and the new channeling, they are unable to spin the ball in their hands to line up the laces.

"It's almost like you have to relearn how to make your plays because this ball sticks to your hand whereas the old ball slid in your hand nicely," two-time MVP Steve Nash told reporters in Phoenix. "This ball just grips the floor and grips the backboard so you have to change your game. You make moves in traffic and the ball gets stuck in parts of your hand and your wrist where normally it slides and you get it back the way you want it. Now, even if it's in your hand, it sticks and you can't get rid of it sometimes. It's a really difficult ball to play with."

Orlando point guard Jameer Nelson isn't happy with the deadness of the ball, claiming that because it is softe, it doesn't bounce as high or as true every time. But he said the players had better get used to the new ball because it isn't likely to change anytime soon. Time will tell, he said, whether or not the change was a good one for the NBA.

"You have to adjust. If they want to change the length of the court we'd have to get used to that," Nelson said. "It's going to take an adjustment time and either the shooting percentages will go down or go up. Turnovers are going to go up or down. We'll find out at the end of the year."


All about the ball
A look at the history of the basketball, from the introduction to the newest ball.
1894: Dr. James Naismith asks A.G. Spalding & Bros. to develop the first basketball.
1937: Laces were removed from Spalding basketballs.
1983: Spalding's full-grain leather ball became the official ball of the National Basketball Association.
2006: Spalding and the NBA introduce the new official game ball with Cross Traxxion technology. -- NBA.com