<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">ESPN.com - According to ESPN.com, league commissioner David Stern has announced that the controversial new NBA game ball will stay. The league is convinced that the new ball is of better quality than the old leather ball.</div> Source
<div class="quote_poster">Swish15 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Source</div> Interesting, when was this said?
<div class="quote_poster">CPaulDWade#3 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Interesting, when was this said?</div> Probably sometime today. Since ESPN is reporting this, it seems pretty reliable. EDIT: Here is a longer, more detailed article about the new ball staying. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> The NBA commissioner said Monday the league is sticking with its new ball and is convinced it's a better product despite concerns from a number of players. That was a much stronger answer than he gave recently when he was in Europe for a series of exhibition games between NBA and international teams. Stern said then he would continue to monitor the situation and test the ball some more. That seemed to leave open the possibility the new ball would be bounced. "We've been testing it and retesting it," Stern said. "And I think that some of the dramatics around it were a little overstated in terms of the downside and not enough recognition of the upside." The upside to Stern is that all the new balls, made of a microfiber composite, feel exactly alike. No two leather balls were the same. Stern said it was customary for referees to go through a rack of balls to select the best one before each game.</div> Read the Rest
The criticism's died down a lot now that preseason is just about finished. I'm not against this decision.
I figured that this would happen. I didn't think that they'd go back to leather after making the choice to use a synthetic one. Plus, based on the scores in the preaseason, it doesn't seem like teams are having too much of an issue scoring right now.
I support Stern's decision ... I think FG% is about the same? But... I think FT% went down noticeably. Then again, all of the synthetic balls feel alike, so .. there's a plus and plus the cow factor.
yeah, but i did see a few, not much but a few, really wierd turnovers, where the player drove and just dropped the ball out of bounds, maybe just preseason stuff, maybe a lil the ball, and they will probably get used to it.
How are most of these players complaining, when majority of them played with microcomposite balls in high school, AAU, and in college?
Cause the players you see complaining have been in the NBA for about a decade and haven't used this type of ball since college and high school. Plus, once a player gets used to the feel of the leather and it gets switched, they have to get used to a whole new ball, and I think that's part of the problem right now.
<div class="quote_poster">Moo2K4 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Cause the players you see complaining have been in the NBA for about a decade and haven't used this type of ball since college and high school. Plus, once a player gets used to the feel of the leather and it gets switched, they have to get used to a whole new ball, and I think that's part of the problem right now.</div> Im pretty sure when these guys go play some pick up ball, there playing with a composite ball somewhere.
i feel that since the ball is staying, players who are crying about it like Shaq and Antawn Jamison need to deal with it. It looks like Novak is not having a problem with it at all. The guy shot 50% from 3-pointers in preseason.
another pointless stupid change. there was nothing wrong with the old ball. there was nothing wrong with players wearing whatever they wanted at games. and there was nothing wrong with players going from high school to the NBA.
<div class="quote_poster">olskoolFunktitude Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">another pointless stupid change. there was nothing wrong with the old ball. there was nothing wrong with players wearing whatever they wanted at games. and there was nothing wrong with players going from high school to the NBA.</div> +1, but since the ball has changed, the players need to shutup and play.
<div class="quote_poster">olskoolFunktitude Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">another pointless stupid change. there was nothing wrong with the old ball. there was nothing wrong with players wearing whatever they wanted at games. and there was nothing wrong with players going from high school to the NBA.</div> Didn`t PETA speak up against Stern because the old ball was basically killing cows?
Thanks for the link to the article. I'm actually writing an essay about this for my English class. I need to propose an alternative to the hated synthetic ball, in this case going back to the leather balls. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to carry this out that might help my research?