I think most diehard NBA fans want the leather ball back. Sell the synthetic ball to the public, but let the pros go with leather. I get sick seeing the wonky bounces off the rim. Sometimes that ball looks like it was made by Nerf, not Spalding.

However…

Change the ball, and kids all over the country want their parents to pop $100 for a new basketball, so they can still have the one their favorite players use.

Change the ball, and even though the price stays the same, Spalding’s per unit profit goes up, because the new ball is exactly what it feels like – cheaply made.

Change the ball, and some of the added per unit profit can be shared with the NBA.

They changed for no reason other than to sell a bunch of basketballs. Expect all kind of theme and novelty balls at high prices made from this cheap material.

They’re dead set on sticking to fixing something that wasn’t broken in order to make kids reject their dad’s old ball and spend on a new one. They’ve already bullied the networks into repeating their BS reasons for the new ball, and Stern has does what he does best – responding to criticism by covering his ears and shouting “LA LA LA LA LA, I’M NOT LISTENING!!!” Now is appears that the closest thing this league has to a conscience, our esteemed Mr. Cuban, has capitulated as well.

The players are indeed some of the greatest athletes in the world. The league, on the other hand, is turning into a crooked joke that places just about everything over the game itself.

I used to really love basketball.

One thing I notice with Nash is that some of his bounce passes don’t lift off the ground as hit as they use to. I noticed a couple of time Amare and Nash were running the pick and roll and his bounce passes just skid along the floor instead of bouncing up. Of course Amare miss the pass and a turnover happen. I think even the announcers tried to blame it on him coming back from injury and being out of shape, implying he couldn’t bend over to pick up the pass. How bogus is that ? I think they were instructed by the Evil Empire to not say anything about the new ball.

Among his beefs with the new ball, James said it doesn’t have the same bounce as the old one. “Sometimes you can grip it, and sometimes during the game it sticks to your hand,” he said. “It won’t bounce, it will just roll on you. I don’t know why we can’t get used to this ball. But it’s just not good.”
James also doesn’t understand why the league changed balls in the first place.
“You can shorten our shorts, tell us how to wear wristbands, things like that. Change the dress code. But the one thing we care about is the basketball,” he said. “When you start changing the thing we play with every single day, it doesn’t make sense to me at all.”

The new ball is nothing like the old NBA leather ball. I know I have the new ball and it doesn’t come close to the classic leather one. Also for the people that say it takes one cow to make four leather basketballs, Spalding Vice President Dan Touhy stated that “not a single cow will live because we changed to a composite ball.” The company acquired leather from meat producers that had already removed the skin. What is the NBA thinking? Stick with the classic leather ball that’s been used for over 20 years!!!!!! I’m tired of the gimmicks. Don’t mess with the integrity of the game!!! Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Shaquille O’neal, Lebron James and over 90 % of the NBA players want the old ball back, please bring it back. Hopefully this will be similar to when Coke realized the classic was better than the “new coke.” To Commisioner Stern, the sign of a good company is that when they make a mistake, first admit it, seek a solution and then correct it. Mark please fight to bring the old ball back and keep the integrity of the game intact. I’m tired of seeing players struggle because of a faulty basketball. Maybe Commissioner Stern hasn’t heard the phrase “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.”