The National Basketball Association will abandon use of its new microfiber composite game ball and revert to the leather model beginning on Jan. 1.
The league sent a memo to its teams on Monday, telling them that the change would be made for the remainder of the 2006-2007 season. In the memo, NBA president Joel Litvin said that Spalding had 450 new leather balls ready for use.
"Our players' response to this particular composite ball has been overwhelmingly negative and we are acting accordingly," NBA commissioner David Stern said.
PHOTO: AP
"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," he said.
Players have complained about the new ball since training camp, saying that it bounced differently than the old one -- both off the floor and the rim. They also said the synthetic material damaged the skin on 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 a smiling 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," James said.
Stern told the New York Times last week the league should have sought more input from players before introducing the new ball.
He also said he would address the players' criticisms with Spalding, the manufacturer.
Spalding president and CEO Scott Creelman said in a statement that his company "will work closely with the NBA to ensure a smooth transition and to determine the best product going forward."
The lack of player input about the new ball prompted the NBA players union to file an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board on Dec. 1.
Two-time league Most Valuable Player award winner Steve Nash has said the ball cut up his hands but wasn't looking for a return to the old ball.
"I just thought the timing was strange," Nash said on Monday about the Jan. 1 switch.
The NBA made the first change to its game ball in more than 35 years in June. Though the NBA insisted it repeatedly had tested the ball and found that it was a better product, several star players, including Dwyane Wade, joined in the criticisms. Nash and Seattle's Ray Allen were among the players who recently complained of the damage to their skin.
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
CUNNINGHAM CONNECTS: In the Eastern Conference, the Pistons snapped their record 15-game playoff losing streak by beating the Knicks to level their series at 1-1 Kawhi Leonard on Monday scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting as the Los Angeles Clippers evened their first-round NBA Playoffs series against the Nuggets with a 105-102 win in Denver. “It feels like he didn’t miss a shot,” James Harden said. “His shot-making ability is elite.” Good thing, too, because his teammates were a combined 26 of 66 for a 39 percent clip. “I made shots tonight,” Leonard said. “I just keep playing, try to stay in the zone no matter if I’m making or missing shots.” The fifth-seeded Clippers needed every bit of his brilliance to snatch the homecourt advantage in the series
RSS