Tuesday, October 10, 2006



NBPA SAYS THE LEAGUE NEVER CONSULTED THE PLAYERS

The article below is from today's Sports Business Daily. National Basketball Players Association Director Billy Hunter (pictured left) said, "We think both the union and the players should have been consulted prior to making the changes." NBA Commissioner David Stern (pictured right) is reviewing the situation and may deflate the decision for a ball change (click here for my reaction several days ago to the ball change).

NBA Commissioner David Stern “conceded for the first time that reverting to the old leather ball is a possibility if the rigorous testing he has just ordered validates the widespread complaints” about the new composite ball from Spalding, “particularly its tendency to become slippery when wet,” according to Ian Whittell of ESPN.com. Speaking before Sunday’s exhibition game in Paris between the Spurs and Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Stern said, “Right now our plans are to stay the course, but we will monitor it and if we find there is something to it and it is a serious issue, we will take the appropriate steps because the most important thing to us is the game.” Stern: “Spalding came to us and said they had a technology that will improve the ball. They said that we are the only sport, professional or college, the last sport using leather and that they had a way to improve it. They came to us several years ago and we said we would have to see the technology working. ... They wanted to launch it one year ago, but we said no. We used it in the D-League, used it in the summer league, had players test it individually and, a year later, they said they had improved it even more. We said, ‘OK, let’s go’” (ESPN.com, 10/8).

STU JACKSON: NBA Exec VP/Basketball Operations Stu Jackson maintains the new ball is of higher quality than the old, all-leather model, and he told THE DAILY the switch was not a sales-driven decision. Jackson: “The introduction of the ball was not motivated by game-ball sales. In fact, the game-ball sales for Spalding is a very tiny fraction of their business, and actually represents less than 1% of their overall unit sales.” He said the league sent one ball to each of the teams to use between March and the end of the season, “then we used the ball in our summer league. Each player that was a roster player in the NBA last year received a ball to work out with during the summer.” Jackson said reverting to the old ball is an option the league is keeping open, but added, “Our plan is to go forward with this composite ball during the ’06-07 season, subject to further testing and feedback. If we decide going back to the old ball is the best option, we could make that adjustment at any time. We’d want to start the regular season with the ball that we’re going to play with for the year” (THE DAILY).

TEST ME, TEST ME: NBA VP/Marketing Communications Mike Bass said that Spalding, “in conjunction with league officials, will conduct the additional testing -– particularly during preseason games” (USA TODAY, 10/9). Spalding VP/Marketing Dan Touhey said that former NBAers Mark Jackson, Reggie Miller and Steve Kerr were the “primary testers” of the new ball. The only NBAers who tested the ball in competition were those competing in the All-Star Game this past season (N.Y. TIMES, 10/7). Jackson added, “The more the players play with the ball, the more they will get used to it and they will come to understand that this ball is better than the old ball” (WASHINGTON POST, 10/10). While NBA rules “dictate only one ball can be used during a game,” an NBA official said that the rule “could be altered to allow the new synthetic balls to be switched out when they become too slick” (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 10/9).

FROM THE UNION: NBPA Exec Dir Billy Hunter said, “The players have been livid. They are very much against changing the ball.” He added that the union is “investigating a protest.” Hunter: “We think both the union and the players should have been consulted prior to making the changes.” In N.Y., Liz Robbins noted some players “wondered whether the league changed the ball to boost sales.” But the NBA and Spalding said that they “changed for progress rather than profit” (N.Y. TIMES, 10/7). T’Wolves F and player rep Mark Madsen said that he would call the union to “share feedback and encourage discussion, steps that might have been neglected” before the new ball was introduced. Madsen said Heat C Shaquille O’Neal is “like the captain of the whole league. I’m hoping the league will take his concerns very seriously.” More Madsen: “This is like giving an accountant software that isn’t great, where he’d say, hey, the old software allowed us to do special things” (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 10/7). In Boston, Mark Murphy wondered, “Did it occur to the folks in the home office or at [Spalding] ... to seek an opinion from the people who will actually use this new ball?” (BOSTON HERALD, 10/8).

SOME INSIGHT: ESPN’s Ric Bucher cited sources as saying that the reason the NBA’s official ball changed from leather to a composite is “because Spalding simply didn’t want to make leather balls anymore. Whether that was (because of) a leather shortage or (because) they’re not very marketable outside the NBA teams, they weren’t going to make them anymore. And the NBA chose not to look at going to a different company and breaking their deal with Spalding in order to continue to play with a leather ball, because by and large, around the world, almost nobody in any league is playing with a full leather ball anymore” (ESPN.com, 10/9).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey J Mosiah; You could have not said it any better than you wrote. Super bowl weekend in Miami was fun; still can't get over: (fingers up? fingers down). We had alot of fun men. Till next time (XLIV). Outstanding article men can't wait for the next one.