Shaq at it Again : Shaq: 'Whoever [changed ball] needs to be fired'

I does have a better grip in fact Tmac and Rafer commented on that and discribed how sticky the ball is in a good way of course!! Shaq gots problems cuz he's afraid his FT% is gonna go below 0% if its not already!! maybe he should take some free throw lessons from Yao, free of charge!

 

The NBA did not survey their players before making the change?!! That is arrogant and stupid. The suits don't play. Rule Number One: the people who actually do the work know best how to do the work. Amazing.

 

Change the tired requirement in nascar
Change a football
Change the Bats in baseball

Hell . .. if you work on a computer all day . . put in a different keyboard
[try the ergonomic ones]
or . .change from PCs to macs


When you change something people use everyday for their jobs
guess what . . .people are going to complain

I think I am kind of complaining about your complaining about them complaining

*whew*

Rocket RIver

 

You can go ahead and list Gilbert and several other Wizards among NBA players who are not big fans of the NBA's new, non-leather basketball. Shaq has compared the new rock to something you'd buy at the local sporting goods store to play outdoor ball with. I kind of like it because I can really get a grip on the new ball but I've only messed with it when it's dry. Players say the problem comes in once sweat starts flowing. "The only thing good about it is that it's grippy when you first touch it," Arenas said. "Once it starts soaking up sweat, it gets slippery. Guys are going to be turning the ball over like crazy this year because you can't hold onto the ball." Washington Post

On the NBA's new basketballs, Anthony said: "I don't like it at all. It feels like an outside ball that I used to play with back in the day on the outside court." Denver Post

The league's two-time MVP - one who may handle the ball more often than any player - is not a fan. "It's very difficult for us," Nash said. "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 and it had a nice little touch off the floor and the backboard. 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 hands 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." Arizona Republic

"It sucks," Suns guard Raja Bell said. "This ball isn't even a cousin of the one we played with. In every way, the ball is totally different. It is round and we've got to put it out of our minds. It's proven to be a streaky ball." The Suns' other principal ball handler, Marcus Banks, is more indifferent about the ball and saw the good in the stronger hold when dry. But he'll miss how the other ball gripped on a sweaty hand. "This ball sticks all the time," Banks said. "We've got to learn to like it." Arizona Republic

"Everybody hates that ball," Shawn Marion said. "It seems like it's more for an outdoor ball than indoor. It doesn't even feel like a NBA ball." Arizona Republic

Zydrunas Ilgauskas is among many NBA players who are confused about the league's decision to change the most important component of the game -- the basketball. "I don't like it," Ilgauskas said of the new basketball that will be used this season. "I'm not big on change, and I didn't think there was anything wrong with the old ball." Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Terrible," Rasheed Wallace said. "I don't know why they did it. The thing that (upsets) me about it is, that's a major part of playing, and you can't just change it without getting the players' opinions on the ball before you change it." Detroit News

Jason Kidd said there was nothing wrong with the old models. "They probably couldn't sell it," he said of the old leather balls. "It was an indoor ball. Not too many kids play inside. A lot of kids play outside, so maybe that was the reason." New York Post

The Blazers, however, don't concur at all. "I love it -- love it," Jack said. "A lot of guys who've been in the league for a while, they're used to a real leather ball. This is almost like a college ball to me. I'm more used to it." Joel Przybilla, like O'Neal a veteran center, has no problem with the new ball, either. "I like it because I can palm it," Przybilla said. "I got small hands, and I could barely palm the old ball, and this one is a little more sticky." Oregonian

http://hoopshype.com/rumors.htm

 

slippery when wet, sticky when dry.
composite materials, baby

 

Exactly. These new balls are simialr to Nike's 3005 model. The grip is superb, but moisture retention could be better.

Once the balls are broken in a bit, they lose that dry stickiness feel a bit and eventually retain more moisture (less-slippery).

And FG% won't be drastically changed by this...it's a ridiculous argument and any NBA player complaining about it without ever having used it is a cry baby. This is such a non-issue.

Overall it's a fantastic material. Plus I'm sure Les Alexander and his PETA crew are happy.

 

this is dumb. the leather nba ball is an icon, what change it?

 

Shaq is hardly the only one to complain, far from it...



Sources: Not enough good leather to go 'round?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2614312

The NBA has controversially introduced a new basketball for the first time in 35 years, prompting an obvious question: Why?

One potential factor: Spalding, which has manufactured NBA balls since 1983, might have been eager to get out of the leather business.

NBA sources told ESPN.com that Spalding urged the NBA to switch to a composite model because it was having trouble securing the "consistent" leather needed to keep manufacturing the ball that has been used for decades.

At the NBA's annual rookie orientation in September, according to sources, first-year players were told by league officials that the change to a microfiber composite ball was caused largely by Spalding's struggles to keep finding the specific leather used for the NBA model.

Spalding, though, contends that the change was made because the new model is simply "a better ball." That's according to Dan Touhey, Spalding's vice president of marketing, who told ESPN.com on Thursday that the composite ball can be produced with "more consistency, a better grip and more advanced technology."

"That's not the reason at all, far from it," Touhey said of any leather shortages. "It is a fact that there are very few manufacturers remaining that produce leather. But when you go down the list of reasons why [the ball was changed], that would be No. 999 out of a thousand.

"We're always looking for a better material, a more consistent material. Leather, because it's a natural material, is inherently a more difficult material to source. A composite material, because it's a man-made material, is easier to source. … The benefit is consistency. That's probably what the point was [at the rookie orientation]."

It remains to be seen if the widespread outcry against the new ball will prompt the league office to consider switching back to leather before the regular season opens Oct. 31. But that seems highly unlikely, given the stance shared by NBA commissioner David Stern in Spain on Thursday.

"Every organization plays with a synthetic ball -- high school, college, FIBA and the like -- and so the time of the synthetic ball is here," Stern said of his league.

The chorus of complaints has nonetheless been getting louder by the day since Miami's Shaquille O'Neal ranted against the switch Monday, likening the composite model to "one of those cheap balls that you buy at the toy store."

New Jersey's Vince Carter, Detroit's Rasheed Wallace, Denver's Carmelo Anthony, Washington's Gilbert Arenas, Phoenix's Shawn Marion and the Suns' reigning two-time MVP Steve Nash are among the big names who have since voiced their displeasure with the change.

The most common complaints are that the ball is too sticky when dry and too slippery when it gets wet, much slicker than a wet leather ball.

Miami's Antoine Walker raised another concern earlier this week, saying, "The problem with this ball is that it wears down very easily and that's not good. During the course of a game, if a guy is 10-for-10 in the first half and now you've got to switch to another ball, that makes a difference. We should have stayed with the old ball. It was better. Those old balls last a long time and you could play with them when they got old. These balls, once they get slippery, it's going to be difficult."

Wallace told the Detroit News: "Terrible. I don't know why they did it. The thing that [upsets] me about it is, that's a major part of playing and you can't just change it without getting the players' opinions on the ball before you change it."

Yet much like the dress code instituted by the league last fall and its subsequent decision to ban the compression tights sported by several top players throughout the 2005-06 season, changing the official ball -- according to the current collective bargaining agreement -- is another measure that the NBA has the right to impose unilaterally, without consulting the NBA Players Association.

NBA vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson, promoted from senior vice president of basketball operations to executive vice president in June, defended the new ball Tuesday, insisting that it has a better grip than its predecessor when wet, not worse.

"It's a better ball," Jackson said. "But as a product matter, composite balls are used in every league throughout the world. And they've been used in every level of play over the last 10 years domestically in the NCAA and also in high school."

The composite ball has been used at the past two All-Star Games and was modified by Spalding after the first composites were tested by NBA players in 2005. The league dispatched a new ball to every NBA player over the summer and Jackson estimated in June that "99 percent" of the league's players grew up using only a composite ball.

But that hasn't hushed or even slowed an ongoing flurry of complaints.

"As a kid going up through high school and then college, you dream about playing with that leather NBA basketball," Mavericks swingman Jerry Stackhouse told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "This new ball is the one I played with in the backyard when I was 12.

"Nobody that ever played the game would want to change that ball. Nobody. Not Michael Jordan. Not Dr. J. Nobody."

Spalding, according to Touhey, was prepared for such reactions, knowing that protest is a reflex response to change.

"It takes time," Touhey said. "These guys are professional athletes. They get custom fitted for their shoes. Everything about their lives is about consistency. When you switch out the most important piece of equipment, players are going to be resistant to that.

"But we know it's a better ball, so we're comfortable."

Bulls coach Scott Skiles told the Chicago Sun-Times: "I think it was my sophomore year in college, the Big Ten -- or maybe it was the whole NCAA -- changed balls. Initially, everybody was kind of frowning on it, but within a couple of months, everybody was fine with it. That will probably be the case here."

 

Baby Shaq

 

according to this

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2617527

leather balls are still an option if there are too many complaints

 

Or it could be that players don't like sloppy basketball. Higher TO's and lower FG% by both teams makes for a sloppy, ugly game. Perhaps they prefer a game that flows more, or one where they can better control the ball.

You could make a football into a hackeysack and it would affect both teams equally, but it doesn't mean the game would be nearly as enjoyable.

 

Money Talks

Rocket River

 

I agree with Shaq.

For those of you saying everyone has to use the same ball, not just Shaq. Guss whst, everyone uses old bal too.

I've never imagined that leather ball is a bog part of NBA's problems/challenges.

 

I thought Shaq's hands are big enough to probably grip 3 balls at a time... shouldn't be a problem

I wonder if the guy will actually get fired if Commish Stern decides to go back to the leather balls..

 

If leather costs more, the price of the ball does not reflect that. $100? For a ball? Nobody can afford to pay that. Even the leather game ball now costs I think 60-70 dollars. Maybe its time the NBA starts talking to other manufacturers. Nike makes a nice line of basektballs, I'm sure they would be willing to talk business. But it sounds like Stern already has Spalding under contract, so I wouldn't expect any change.

 

Just caught a segment with Giff Nielsen from Toyota Center. He was pointing out that the new balls say "Made In China" on them and made a joke about Yao controlling that aspect of the game.

 

Well, they showed Shaw making his free throws tonight, so may be the new ball isn't so bad after all...

 

Anyone who complains about the ball is a crybaby. Stop whining. It's not the ball, it's YOU. However, I do agree it has a weird look, but since we're used to looking at those crossing thread lines, the new ball will look weird to everyone. It's up to you to leav the "newball mentality" off the court and PLAY SOME EFFIN' BASKETBALL.

On the Rockets' Wallpaper,

only Battier has the new ball. Tracy and Yao are shown using the old ball.

WHO CARES? Just play ball. You whiners.

 

I think Shaq is worried that his Free throw percentage may go down.

DD

 

That's what I ask my wife...but she does it anyway.