http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3575912
The NBA will use leather basketballs in its developmental league next season, ending its attempts to develop a composite ball for use at the NBA level, a league official has confirmed.
"We are committed to leather for the foreseeable future," league spokesman Tim Frank said. "We just realized leather is what our guys wanted."
That means the NBA will remain the only league in the world that still uses a leather ball. Most college conferences, and foreign and international leagues, use balls made of synthetic material because they're less expensive to produce and provide more consistency from ball to ball.
The NBA introduced a composite ball at the start of the 2006-07 season, but after complaints from players that the balls became slick from perspiration and left tiny cuts on their fingertips, the league returned to leather as of Jan. 1, 2007.
The league hoped to develop a composite ball that met its players' approval, and to that end, according to sources, experimented with three different types of composite balls in the D League last season.
It also formed a committee of top NBA players to test the new versions and offer their input, something that was not done the first time.
The production cost for Wilson, the company that makes the league's official ball, was one reason the league looked to switch to a composite material.
The plan now is to develop a two-paneled ball, rather than the current eight-panel model, which would reduce the cost of labor and manufacturing.
The D League will begin next season using an eight-paneled leather ball and then switch to a two-paneled version sometime around midseason, Frank said.
The NBA will use leather basketballs in its developmental league next season, ending its attempts to develop a composite ball for use at the NBA level, a league official has confirmed.
"We are committed to leather for the foreseeable future," league spokesman Tim Frank said. "We just realized leather is what our guys wanted."
That means the NBA will remain the only league in the world that still uses a leather ball. Most college conferences, and foreign and international leagues, use balls made of synthetic material because they're less expensive to produce and provide more consistency from ball to ball.
The NBA introduced a composite ball at the start of the 2006-07 season, but after complaints from players that the balls became slick from perspiration and left tiny cuts on their fingertips, the league returned to leather as of Jan. 1, 2007.
The league hoped to develop a composite ball that met its players' approval, and to that end, according to sources, experimented with three different types of composite balls in the D League last season.
It also formed a committee of top NBA players to test the new versions and offer their input, something that was not done the first time.
The production cost for Wilson, the company that makes the league's official ball, was one reason the league looked to switch to a composite material.
The plan now is to develop a two-paneled ball, rather than the current eight-panel model, which would reduce the cost of labor and manufacturing.
The D League will begin next season using an eight-paneled leather ball and then switch to a two-paneled version sometime around midseason, Frank said.
