[Chron] New Balls Suck Balls

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/sports/4298790.html

Rockets can't get a grip on NBA's new balls


By FRAN BLINEBURY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

When Dr. James Naismith nailed up the peach baskets Dec. 21, 1891, at the Springfield, Mass., YMCA, it was a classic case of inspiration and improvisation. He used what he had at his disposal. Thus, the first "basket ball" game was played with a soccer ball.

United States Patent No. 1,718,305 was granted to G.L. Pierce on June 25, 1929, for the manufacture of a basketball, an outer shell of leather around an inner rubber bladder. The laces were officially removed in 1937.

The renegade American Basketball Association introduced its flamboyant red-white-and-blue ball from 1967 to 1976. But for the most part, no one has tampered with the most fundamental part of the game.

Until now.

When the NBA tips off its 61st season tonight, what will be tossed into the air will not be the signature leather basketball that's been dribbled and shot for decades, but an ersatz ball made of a microfiber composite that's been slammed, if not dunked.

"It feels like one of those cheap balls that you buy at the toy store," Miami's Shaquille O'Neal said.

"Bring the old ball back," the Rockets' Tracy McGrady said. "I don't care about old rules, the defense, I don't care about any of that. Just bring the old ball back."

"It's like some mornings when you wake up, your hand was in the wrong position and you're numb on the fingers," the Rockets' Yao Ming said. "Do you ever have that feeling? The ball has that feeling. It feels flat."

There have been many arcane products — Tang, ginsu knives, parachute pants, New Coke — introduced to a marketplace that was never clamoring for their arrival. Yet this move by the marketing- and increasingly image-conscious NBA has to rank as one of the true puzzlers.

Was the old ball going flat? Developing sharp corners? Bouncing funny?

"If it's not broke, break it and make it better," said Stu Jackson, the NBA's president of operations. "That's what we feel we've done."


Players up in arms
What the league and Spalding seemed to do over the summer was to switch from the leather ball that had been used for nearly four decades to the synthetic variety without anticipating the sheer volume of the outcry and controversy.

Players from the huge — O'Neal — to the small — two-time MVP Steve Nash — have complained that the ball is slippery and hard to hold.

Neither the league nor the manufacturer claims to have done it for financial reasons. Spalding says official game ball sales account for less than 1 percent of revenue.

"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," said Dan Touhey, Spalding's vice president for marketing and research development. "The leather ball was 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 had to be broken in before you used them. They had different grips."

The manufacturer has performed grip tests that it says back up its claims. Jackson says it's simply a matter of picking up a new ball and holding it in your hands.

"When you put this ball in someone's hands — whether it be a player, an owner, a general manager, a coach — the immediate reaction is that it feels better," Jackson said. "When I've played with the ball, when other people have played with the ball, it's easier to handle."

But now many of those "other people" are the elite players who actually play the game and have come to develop a feel for the leather basketball. Spalding has acknowledged the new ball bounces differently off the backboard. That means a player such as San Antonio's Tim Duncan, who frequently banks the ball off the glass, must adjust.

To that, NBA commissioner David Stern has said, too bad. After saying during Spurs training camp in France that he would continue to listen to complaints and concerns and have the ball retested, the commissioner followed up it last week by telling the critics to quit whining.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has endorsed the switch, saying it will save cows from death in the making of balls. Yet it's been noted the hides used to make leather basketballs come from animals that have been slaughtered for food.

Why the change then? To be new? Different?

In 1973, the flamboyant Charlie Finley, owner of the Oakland A's, tried to get Major League Baseball to use orange balls. He said they would be easier to see at night. But pitchers claimed they were slippery and batters said they couldn't see the seams and were therefore unable to pick up the spin. The orange balls were retired after one spring training.


Failed experiments
In the early 1950s, the NFL experimented with a white football for night games, but it never was received well by players. The league made the official ball brown in 1956.

The NHL briefly used a puck that was embedded with a microchip that made it glow blue on television. It was reviled by purists and abandoned in 1998.

NBA officials tout the consistency of the composite ball.

"NBA game balls have been tested for 23 years in the same eight categories, and this composite ball stays within the standard specs for an NBA ball much better than leather," Jackson said.

But Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban asked several members of the University of Texas-Arlington physics department to test the balls. What they found is that the new ball, when dropped from a height of 5 feet, bounced an average of 4 inches lower than the old ball. They also determined that the composite ball is slower to absorb moisture, which has been one of the main complaints of players and some coaches.

"They've changed our weapon," said Nash. "I'm having a hard time holding it and making some passes."

Initially, Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said he didn't want to concern himself with the ball and expected his players to make the adjustment.

"But I've noticed the ball being all over the place," Van Gundy said. "It's seems like the ball is slipping out of their hands a lot."


Slippery when wet
According to Touhey of Spalding, a leather ball could pick up as much as 70 grams of moisture during a typical NBA game, changing the weight from start to finish.

"Now that moisture doesn't get into the leather, into the ball," Jackson said.

Where does the moisture go? Logic says it stays on the outside.

The NBA, meanwhile, points to preseason statistics that show no glaring differences in field-goal percentage, free-throw percentage or turnovers

The league tried out the new ball in last season's All-Star Game at Toyota Center, and reviews were negative. It was used in the Three-Point Shootout, and most of the participants complained.

Too bad, Stern said again, just last week.

"We've been testing it and retesting it," the commissioner said. "And I think that some of the dramatics around it were a little overstated in terms of the downside, and (there was) not enough recognition of the upside."

Which is?

"I'm not a ball designer," Yao said. "But I have to say I really don't like this ball. The more I use it, the more I hate it."

For better or worse, it really is a whole new ballgame.