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Stern going back to the old ball

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Chuck~Taylor, Dec 11, 2006.

  1. Chuck~Taylor

    Chuck~Taylor Active Member

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

    The leather ball will be back on Jan. 1st
     
  2. heyabbott

    heyabbott Well-Known Member

    I thought this thread was about Howard Stern finally coming out of the closet
     
  3. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    My question is this: If he's decided to can the new ball, why wait three weeks? You're telling me the NBA can't get enough balls into the arenas in a week?

    If he feels they're a big enough detriment to the game to go back to the old balls, he should be switching ASAP. Not waiting for a pretty date like Jan. 1 to make the change.

    It's not an earth-shattering matter, of course, but it just seems silly to wait.
     
  4. dawgpounddiehard

    dawgpounddiehard Active Member

    Wow you spent $99 on your Secret Santa? The other week, I went to NBA.com to see how much these balls were to pick one up for my rec league team. Needless to say when I saw the price tag I quickly closed the Internet browser.

    Maybe they'll be on sale now? :)
     
  5. Second Thoughts

    Second Thoughts Active Member

    He can't kill them off before the Christmas spending on the new ball becomes obsolete.

    (As an aside, this is stunning backtracking by the true Great Decider).
     
  6. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    Props for recognizing a disaster and making changes relatively early. I wish other leaders would follow suit.
     
  7. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    Since there seemed to be a "period of adjustment" to get used to these new balls, perhaps they would need another period of adjustment to get used to the old ones.
     
  8. dog428

    dog428 Active Member

    That's some lede on the ESPN story:

    A "stunning" reversal? Really?
     
  9. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    NBA TO BALL: We're with you, leather.
     
  10. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    I'm stunned (relatively speaking). In every interview I heard with Stern he was defending the ball like it was his first-born kid, and even his "statement" was dubious:

    "Our players' response to this particular composite ball has been consistently negative and we are acting accordingly. 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."

    Riiiiight Commish. The players told you from Day 1 that they hated it.
     
  11. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Just another example of the NBA being about marketing instead of sport.

    I mean why fuck with the rock. There was just 0 upside.
     
  12. RokSki

    RokSki New Member

    I agree that it is a large 'loss' for the league offices. Stern is notoriously resolute when he takes a position, and he did not want to have to pull the plug on the new ball. He must have gotten a huge amount of blowback to take this step.
     
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