ADN

Yeah I have no idea why they changed the ball.....good article.

The NBA¢¢¬¢ž¢s New Basketball: What They¢¢¬¢ž¢re Saying





The NBA introduced a new Official Game Ball for play beginning in the 2006-07 season, featuring a new design and a new material to offer better grip, feel and consistency than the current leather ball. But how does the composite material stack up to the leather which was used during the NBA's first 60 seasons? Current and past players give their take:
¢¢¬…œIt will be great to get a ball that just feels the same no matter where you are and then it¢¢¬¢ž¢ll really give you that comfort that you need, either home or away¢¢¬‚¦I think the grip is nice ... I¢¢¬¢ž¢ll be able to do more tricks with it, so I¢¢¬¢ž¢m excited about the grip of it. It feels really good.¢¢¬‚
-- 2006 Finals MVP Dwyane Wade

¢¢¬…œWhen you play in different cities, the ball may be a little newer or may be a little worn out, but this ball right here, it seems like it¢¢¬¢ž¢s going to stay the same, so that¢¢¬¢ž¢s a positive thing. No matter what city you play in, it will be the same ball.¢¢¬‚
-- 2005-06 NBA Rookie of the Year Chris Paul

¢¢¬…œThis is a great ball. If I had this ball back when I played, there would have been a lot more poster-ized guys.¢¢¬‚
-- Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins

¢¢¬…œThis is a beautiful ball. It's easier to control. I'd take this one any day.¢¢¬‚
-- Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler

¢¢¬…œIt took quite a while to break in a leather ball. It would probably take at least a month before you would feel really comfortable shooting and dribbling the basketball. For me it was love at first sight. When I embraced the ball I immediately felt the difference. It¢¢¬¢ž¢s going (to give you) a great feel, great grip¢¢¬‚¦great for shooting¢¢¬‚¦it¢¢¬¢ž¢s just a no-brainer. It¢¢¬¢ž¢s a much better basketball than the leather ball.¢¢¬‚
-- Former NBA All-Star Mark Jackson

¢¢¬…œThis has much better grip. The composite gives it a more comfortable feel. I dribbled probably eight or ten different balls and they all felt exactly the same, which is really key as a player ¢¢¬¢‚¬Å“ you want to have the same feel dribbling the ball, and as a shooter, to have that grip, to be able to feel the grooves and your hands and finger tips on the ball and not have it slid off a little bit ¢¢¬¢‚¬Å“ that is really important. I really like the ball. I think it is a big improvement over the last one.¢¢¬‚
-- Four-time NBA champion Steve Kerr

¢¢¬…œWe didn¢¢¬¢ž¢t like to play with a new one because the new one was real slippery. It (the new ball) feels good in my hands. I¢¢¬¢ž¢m sure being as old as I am that I can still shoot it.¢¢¬‚
-- Hall of Famer George Gervin

¢¢¬…œMost of the guys like to get an older ball, got a lot of feeling to it; it¢¢¬¢ž¢s soft, something you can play with, something you can grip, something you might want to finger roll and get a rebound with. A new ball, it¢¢¬¢ž¢s very difficult to shoot with, because it¢¢¬¢ž¢s still got that sliding feeling. This ball here you can feel, it feels good; feels like you got something real soft, nice, something you can play with and get an opportunity to get a better shot.¢¢¬‚
-- Hall of Famer Moses Malone

¢¢¬…œI think the grip is a lot better ¢¢¬¢‚¬Å“ of course, I¢¢¬¢ž¢m used to playing with the old NBA balls that are leather and they get a little slippery. This one seems to hold its grip a lot better. I like it when the ball gets wet and the game gets going. I think it is going to be a lot better; I think the players are going to like it a lot better.¢¢¬‚
-- NBA great Kiki Vandeweghe

Shaq no fan of NBA's new ball



MIAMI --Heat center Shaquille O'Neal is no fan of the new basketballs to be used by the NBA this season, and isn't afraid to say so.

"I think the new ball is terrible," O'Neal said Monday. "It's the worst decision some expert, whoever did it, made. ... The NBA's been around how long? A hundred years? Fifty years? So to change it now, whoever that person is needs his college degree revoked. It's a terrible decision."

It's only the second time in 60 seasons the NBA has changed its game balls, and the first time in 35 years.

The new model, the league said in a release, "is a microfiber composite with moisture management that provides superior grip and feel throughout the course of a game."

O'Neal, along with many of his Heat teammates, strongly disagree.

"Feels like one of those cheap balls that you buy at the toy store, indoor-outdoor balls," O'Neal said. "I look for shooting percentages to be way down and turnovers to be way up, because when the ball gets wet you can't really control it. Whoever did that needs to be fired. It was terrible, a terrible decision. Awful. I might get fined for saying that, but so what?"

Other factors cited by the league in changing the ball is so that ones used in games will be uniform throughout the league, and that the leather models needed a breaking-in period that won't be necessary with the composite.

"I don't like it, because it's different," Heat backup center Michael Doleac said. "You get used to something, you don't want to change it. ... But in three years, we'll probably all look back and not be able to imagine playing with anything else."

The new composite will be the third type of ball Heat guard Dwyane Wade will use in four months.

Last season's finals were played with the traditional leather ball, then the FIBA world championships used a ball that was slightly smaller than the NBA model -- something Wade spent most of the summer getting familiar with.

"Now I've got to make another adjustment with a ball that I haven't shot with at all and it's going to be a challenge," Wade said. "That means it's going to take a lot of late nights for me, I'll tell you that, to get really adjusted to the ball because I have no choice."

Wade said the biggest complaint players have with the new ball is the slippage factor, as in how much grip will be lost when players' hands sweat and that moisture gets on the ball.

"Hopefully over time, you'll hear nothing about it and we'll all stop complaining," Wade said. "But I think rebounds are going to go up this year. All around the league, I think there's going to be a lot of bricks thrown up there early on."

I just heard on ESPN that they'll be switching back to the leather ball the first of the year...

And that A.I. was about to be traded..???

Yea, AI is prolly gonna be out of Philly by the end of the week. They are predicting that he's gonna be going to either the Kings, Wolves, or Celtics.

The NBA is switching back to the old balls at the start of the new year. I think I might go out and buy this new ball right now though...it's gonna be worth a lot later on. Since I work for the Sonics, I can get it for relatively cheap.

Posted Monday December 11

It might be the most stunning ball reversal in hoops history.

Not even three months into the life of its controversial synthetic basketball, NBA commissioner David Stern moved Monday to hush scores of discontented players by shelving Spalding's new microfiber composite ball and authorizing a switch back to the old leather ball for all games starting Jan. 1.

The move would appear to be an unprecedented in-season change, in terms of primary equipment, for North American major professional sports leagues.

"Our players' response to this particular composite ball has been consistently negative and we are acting accordingly," Stern said in a statement. "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.

"In the meantime, we will work with our players and our partners at Spalding to determine the best possible ball for the NBA," he said.

Despite an unrelenting stream of player complaints about the new synthetic model from the first day of training camp in October, skepticism was high among players leaguewide that Stern would consent to a change during the season.

ESPN.com reported Friday that league officials began contacting all 30 teams late last week to start gauging its supply of leftover leather balls from last season in case the decision to switch came quickly.

It'll be up to the teams themselves, though, to determine how to find time to readjust to the old ball while finishing out this month's schedule with the new ball. This would seem to present a particular challenge for the Boston Celtics, who are the only team in the league scheduled to play on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. It appears that the Celtics will be required to play at Seattle with the new synthetic ball on New Year's Eve and then the leather version 24 hours later in Portland.

Source http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2694335

My Nugget's may finally have a chance, but I doubt it.lol

Well they have the 2 highest scorers this year so we'll see

Those black jersey's the Nuggets have are fresh at least... /:D" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt=":D" />

Damn man, I want to find a clip of the fight..! Take that David Stern and your fucking robot behavior rules, lol...

The only place that I know of right now that has video of the fight is ESPN.com Go to this link:

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/ivp ... me=nba&id=

click on NBA on the left hand side, and then there will be a list of videos. The brawl is still one of the top NBA videos