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

[WestCoasta]

^^^ ya sure, but they are losers for coming off like little women about it

waaa, lemme complain about this shit... they need to sack it up, if they're so good at basketball they can adjust

[jeromechickenbone]

I'd be willing to bet Kidd hit it on the head, it's all about $$$...


Jason Kidd-
They probably couldn't sell it. It was an indoor ball. Not too many kids play inside. A lot of kids play outside, so maybe that was the reason. They put a lot of money into this ball, so I don't know If they'll change it. We can complain about the rule changes, but we still have to go out there and play.

[R-Tistic]

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMNNN @ the number of players who complained about it!!!

[WestCoasta]

I'd be willing to bet Kidd hit it on the head, it's all about $$$...


Jason Kidd-
They probably couldn't sell it. It was an indoor ball. Not too many kids play inside. A lot of kids play outside, so maybe that was the reason. They put a lot of money into this ball, so I don't know If they'll change it. We can complain about the rule changes, but we still have to go out there and play.

at least this guy's acting like a male

[Antonio_]

Only in America.

[Antonio_]

my god these dudes are BITCHES


why doesn't a bench player making $5 million averaging 1 point and 0.3 rebounds a game step up next and cry about it

They're the ones working with the ball, they didn't even have a say in the change...They have a right to voice their opinion about it.

Man they play with this fucking ball in Europe.



Nobody bitched when they chosed it. And yes, it's horrible too. You guys in the States should relax more and actually start to pratice more. Shaq complaining about a ball is the real joke!!! He can't even make 1/10 FT and he's bitching about the ball?? That guy is totally stupid!! Work on your FT %, fool! You don't have the right to speak about the ball, you can't even handle it. I hate it when those american players acts like hollywood superstars. Get the fucking ball and play!!

They changed the ball in soccer too in 2004. It was horrible. When you shoot from outside it goes left and then right, alone. It's like a crazy-ball. But nobody acted so immature when they announced it. They just accepted it and played. Damn, it's a ball!!

Richardson is the real man.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Kobe Bryant-
I'm old school, so I love the old-school ball. We had to adjust to it last year when we played with it in the All-Star game and it got slippery. It was tough to kind of grip it or get control of it. It was really slippery when we were playing with it. It's just a ball. Growing up, I played with all kinds of balls. I rolled up tape and used tape as a basketball. I played with a sock. I think I can play with this one. At the end of the day, a ball is a ball. Just go out there and play with it. We'll be fine. I don't even think it's that big of a deal.

Lamar Odom-
By the second or third quarter in an NBA game, guys perspire a lot. Once that ball gets wet, it just kind of slips out of your hand. I guarantee you in the beginning of the season we'll see a game probably lost on maybe just a simple pass, a guy trying to catch the ball — boom. A guy going in for a layup by himself — 3, 2, 1 — the ball will probably slip right out of his hand. For guys like me who had to play in the park and shovel snow (and) played with a handball, a tennis ball, it doesn't make a difference.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Q&A with Stu Jackson

New York, Oct. 6 -- NBA Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Stu Jackson answered questions regarding the new Spalding NBA game ball.

Q: Who was involved in the decision to introduce a new Spalding Official NBA Game Ball?
Stu Jackson: Spalding has been working and doing a great deal of research in the past several years on a new ball product, which they presented as a new and better basketball, potentially for the NBA. After doing extensive testing ourselves, we made the decision to utilize this new ball in our game.

Q: Why was the change made?
Jackson: The change was made because we have a better product and a better ball. The playing of our game and the integrity of our game is something that we take very seriously and having the ability to put a better ball into our game was an easy decision to make.

Q: Was the decision at all based on money?
Jackson: It was not based on money at all. It was not motivated by the desire to increase game ball sales. In actuality, game balls have comprised a tiny fraction of Spalding’s basketball business and really represent less than 1 percent of their unit sales.

Q: What makes this ball better than the leather ball?
Jackson: This ball has a better feel, a better grip. The composite material is more consistent over time in terms of maintaining a consistent color and maintaining a consistent feel. The players will experience a consistency in balls from arena to arena. And the life span of this ball is longer than a leather ball.

Q: What’s your response to some player complaints that the ball gets slippery when wet?
Jackson: This composite ball gets slippery when it’s wet as did the leather balls. They got slippery when wet also. When both the leather ball and this composite ball are wet, this composite ball is less slippery than the leather ball when it’s wet. So balls getting wet is always something that will exist in our game, but because we have a better product, we have a ball now that gets less wet than the ball before.

Q: Some players have said that the new ball has a better grip. How do you think the grip improvement will influence the game?
Jackson: The better grip on the ball will affect the game positively. If the ball is easier to handle, it’s easier to pass, it’s easier to receive and it’s easier to shoot the basketball. So it’s going to affect the game very positively.

Q: A lot of athletes are very superstitious about their equipment. Do you think that some of the early complaints are basically a result of that?
Jackson: I don’t know concretely if it’s due to superstition, but any time a new rule is implemented into the NBA or a new piece of equipment or a new technology, there is always a transition and adjustment period by players and coaches and anyone involved with the game. In this instance, with the new composite ball, it’s not different. I firmly believe that as the players continue to play with the ball and adjust to the new feel and the new grip, in time they’re going to understand that this is a much better product than they played with before.

Q: We know that every league in the world plays with a composite ball of some sort. Why do you think the change has received all this attention?
Jackson: Again, everywhere on the globe the game is played with a composite ball. And the reason is that composite material maintains a level of consistency in play and over the lifespan of the ball. Aside from the fact that it has a better grip and a better feel, it’s just a better ball and the transition to a composite ball for us at the NBA is not unlike the same transition the NCAA went to when they had leather balls and went to composite. It takes an adjustment and we’re undergoing that adjustment as well. But in the end we’ve got a better product to play with in our game.

[herpes]

LMAO @ Sam Cassell

[Don Jacob]

my god these dudes are BITCHES


why doesn't a bench player making $5 million averaging 1 point and 0.3 rebounds a game step up next and cry about it

how do you think these players got these multimillion dollar, quarter of a billion dollar contracts? they don't get them straight out of highschool. they have to put up big numbers and make big plays. and if they feel that they are being put at a disadvantage to do this by implementing a ball that is of lesser quality. then they have every right 'cry'. the nba is a PROFESSIONAL organization. you wouldn't implement a lesser tax software at an accounting firm such as Price WaterHouse.  same with this game ball, these are all professional atheletes, who are expected to dress up in three piece suits when not playing. As an employer of these Professionals shouldn't you provide them with the best possible tools to do their job?

i've messed around with this ball and all i can say is, i see no real difference between this and one of those balls they have you play with when you're a kid at PE. unless the ball is dried up after every posession, the 'superior grip' is useless, like all the players before said once it's wet it's like handling an beach ball.

like jason kid said, it's a way for the nba to sell more merchanidise. also i can see why they made the ball lighter, they think it's going to make it easier for shots to go in from long distance and such.  time will only tell if they're wrong about this.


overall though, the new ball is junk

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

my god these dudes are BITCHES


why doesn't a bench player making $5 million averaging 1 point and 0.3 rebounds a game step up next and cry about it

how do you think these players got these multimillion dollar, quarter of a billion dollar contracts? they don't get them straight out of highschool. they have to put up big numbers and make big plays. and if they feel that they are being put at a disadvantage to do this by implementing a ball that is of lesser quality. then they have every right 'cry'. the nba is a PROFESSIONAL organization. you wouldn't implement a lesser tax software at an accounting firm such as Price WaterHouse.  same with this game ball, these are all professional atheletes, who are expected to dress up in three piece suits when not playing. As an employer of these Professionals shouldn't you provide them with the best possible tools to do their job?

i've messed around with this ball and all i can say is, i see no real difference between this and one of those balls they have you play with when you're a kid at PE. unless the ball is dried up after every posession, the 'superior grip' is useless, like all the players before said once it's wet it's like handling an beach ball.

like jason kid said, it's a way for the nba to sell more merchanidise. also i can see why they made the ball lighter, they think it's going to make it easier for shots to go in from long distance and such.  time will only tell if they're wrong about this.


overall though, the new ball is junk

I agree...So who thinks the old ball will be back and who doesn't?

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

NBA testing new ball; leather still an option

PARIS -- David Stern has flown across the Atlantic on an NBA Europe Live tour that will have taken him to five countries by the middle of next week, but the league's commissioner has been unable to escape the raging controversy about the new basketball introduced this season.

Speaking to reporters in Paris before Sunday's exhibition game between the San Antonio Spurs and Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Stern conceded for the first time that reverting to the old leather ball is a possibility if the rigorous testing he has just ordered validates the widespread complaints about the ball -- particularly its tendency to become slippery when wet.

"We have sent out the most stringent testing crew to see what there is to the issue," Stern said when asked if returning to leather was under consideration.

"Right now our plans are to stay the course, but we will monitor it and if we find there is something to it and it is a serious issue, we will take the appropriate steps because the most important thing to us is the game.

"We have gone out and done tests. We have wet both balls. When the [old] leather ball is wet at the end of the game, it is very slippery.

"But with the new ball, all you have got to do is put in a new ball because they [Spalding's new microfiber composite balls] are all the same, all the time. One of the benefits Spalding stressed to us is that it is a better ball, it has a more modern approach to the grip that would endure.

"But the game is uppermost in our mind."

Stern went on to insist that the technology behind the new synthetic ball is sound.

"Spalding came to us and said they had a technology that will improve the ball," he said. "They said that we are the only sport, professional or college, the last sport using leather and that they had a way to improve it.

"They came to us several years ago and we said we would have to see the technology working … they wanted to launch it one year ago, but we said no. We used it in the D-League, used it in the summer league, had players test it individually and, a year later, they said they had improved it even more.

"We said, 'OK, let's go.' So that's what we did."

The change from traditional leather to a synthetic ball, the first such change made by the NBA in 35 years, has been greeted with almost universal criticism by players after a week of training camp.

Complaints have centered not only upon the ball becoming slippery, but also a "sticky" texture when dry and its tendency to wear out more quickly than the old-style ball, making it likely that more than one ball will have to be used in many games.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

NBA's New Ball Might Not Last Much Longer

By Mike Bresnahan, Times Staff Writer
October 11, 2006

Is the new NBA ball close to getting bounced out of the game?

As more players voice complaints about its slippery grip, the NBA has decided to take a closer look, a move welcomed by many Lakers.

"I'm not surprised," forward Lamar Odom said, nodding in the direction of a rack of the new balls. "I think Mr. [David] Stern likes everything uniform. As you can see, all those balls look exactly the same. They're cute.

"Other balls, they change color [when wet], they have different flavors, but you can depend on those things. When [the new ones] get wet, guys perspire on them, they get real slippery."

The NBA changed the ball for the first time in 35 years, using a micro-fiber composite instead of the traditional leather because of what it said was a "superior grip and feel."

Most players simply feel irritated.

Shaquille O'Neal compared the new ball to a cheap toy-store type. Steve Nash wasn't thrilled, either. Kobe Bryant used a more politically correct analogy, saying he would prefer to stay "old school" with the leather ball. Odom recently predicted that games would be won or lost this season because of the ball, by a fumbled pass or muffed layup.

No doubt hearing the rebellion from his New York City office, Commissioner Stern said the league would examine alternate possibilities, if necessary. In other words, old school might become cool again.

"Right now our plans are to stay the course, but we will monitor it and if we find there is something to it and it is a serious issue, we will take the appropriate steps because the most important thing to us is the game," Stern told reporters last weekend before an exhibition game in Paris.

Stern also revealed the brief history of the new ball.

"Spalding came to us and said they had a technology that will improve the ball," he said. "They said that we are the only sport, professional or college, the last sport using leather and that they had a way to improve it.

"They came to us several years ago and we said we would have to see the technology working. They wanted to launch it one year ago, but we said no. We used it in the [Development] League, used it in the summer league, had players test it individually and, a year later, they said they had improved it even more. We said, 'OK, let's go.' "

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Spalding defends its new NBA basketball

By Jay Fitzgerald
Boston Herald General Economics Reporter
Wednesday, October 11, 2006 - Updated: 04:34 PM EST

    With Shaquille O’Neal and others grumbling about its new basketball, Spalding yesterday denied it threw up a synthetic air ball.
 
    National Basketball Association players are bemoaning Spalding’s new ball as slippery and inferior to the old leather ball they’ve dribbled and shot with for decades.
 
    To much fanfare, Springfield-based Spalding and the NBA announced earlier this year that the league would switch this season to a new microfiber-composite basketball - with fewer grooves - from the classic leather-covered ball of yore.
 
    But some NBA players, now gearing up for the upcoming 2006-2007 season, are harshly criticizing the official new NBA game ball as hard to handle when wet from sweat - and weird to shoot without as many grooves.
 
    Shaq has already said the league should fire whoever came up with the idea to replace the leather-bound basketball.
 
    “Terrible,” Detroit’s Rasheed Wallace was quoted as saying.
 
    The Celtic’s Paul Pierce, though, has defended the ball, saying he used it this summer and has adjusted to its small differences. Then again, Pierce has endorsement ties to Spalding.
 
    “It’s like the old outdoor-indoor ball you played with when you were on the playground. It’s grippy - I like that about it, Celtics point guard Sebastian Telfair said last night. “It just doesn’t feel smooth coming off your fingertips when you shoot.”
 
    The complaining has been loud enough for NBA commissioner David Stern to say this past weekend that the league will closely monitor the situation and, if the complaints prove true, might go back to the original leather.
 
    That has folks in Springfield scrambling.
 
    Asked if there’s a possibility the leather ball might be brought back, Spalding marketing chief Dan Touhey said, “I don’t think that will be necessary.”
 
    “Players don’t like change,” said Touhey, insisting the new ball is better and actually less slippery. The ball was tested in summer leagues by NBA players - and developed over the past two years.
 
    College and high-school teams regularly used microfiber-composite balls - and NBA players just need time to adjust, he said.
 
    “It’s a far superior ball,” said Touhey, who estimated Spalding, a unit of the Russell Corp., spent hundreds of thousands of dollars developing the product.
 
    As part of its NBA deal, Spalding provides the league with about 2,200 balls a year. The new ball costs about 5 percent less to make, but the NBA has said the old leather balls took longer to break in than synthetic-covered ones.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/sports/basketball/15777841.htm

The ball slipped out of Garnett's right hand during a dunk attempt in the first quarter. Forward Mark Madsen, who watched in disbelief, was quick to blame the new synthetic ball.