League will drop new ball after New Year's Eve
NEW YORK -- The NBA's much-maligned new basketball is being bounced.
After months of complaints from players about the way it gripped, performed and even hurt their skin, commissioner David Stern decided Monday to put the microfiber composite ball back on the rack.
The old leather ball returns Jan. 1, and players who are still upset they weren't consulted can't wait for the change.
"They should have done a little more testing the first time so we wouldn't have had to go through this," Spurs All-Star Tim Duncan said. "Hopefully, they have corrected their mistake, and everything will be good."
The league sent a memo to its teams Monday, telling them that the change would be made for the remainder of the 2006-07 season. In the memo, NBA president Joel Litvin said that Spalding had 450 new leather balls on hand for use.
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| Phoenix's Steve Nash was one NBA player unhappy with the ball. (Getty Images) |
"We will work with our players and our partners at Spalding to determine the best possible ball for the NBA," Stern said.
"Our players' response to this particular composite ball has been consistently negative, and we are acting accordingly. Although testing performed by Spalding and the NBA demonstrated that the new composite basketball was more consistent than leather, and statistically there has been an improvement in shooting, scoring, and ball-related turnovers, the most important statistic is the view of our players."
Although players praised Stern for listening to their complaints and reacting to them, there were still questions about how the commissioner decided to make the change -- apparently again without input.
"I'm glad they went through an in-depth analysis to pick the ball," Dallas owner Mark Cuban said. "I'm glad they went through an in-depth process to get rid of it."
Players have complained about the new ball since training camp, saying it bounced differently than the old one -- off the floor and the rim. They also said the synthetic material cut their hands.
"For the league to be successful, obviously the players have to be happy. The basketball is the most important thing to us," said LeBron James, one of several NBA All-Stars who criticized the new ball.
"Like I said before, you can change the dress code, you can make our shorts shorter, but when you take our basketball away from us, that's not a transition we handle."
