Leather Report: NBA Temporarily Shelves Composite Ball Idea

NBA Temporarily Ending Its Attempts To Develop Composite Ball

NBA VP/Basketball Communications Tim Frank said that the NBA D-League will use leather balls next season, "temporarily ending its attempts to re-introduce a composite ball at the NBA level," according to Ric Bucher of ESPN.com. Frank: "We are committed to leather for the foreseeable future. We just realized leather is what our guys wanted." Bucher reported Spalding, which makes the NBA's official ball, will remain "one of two companies manufacturing a leather basketball," along with Molten. The NBA began the '06-07 season using a composite ball, but switched back to a leather ball in January '07 amid player complaints. The league "hoped to develop a composite ball that met its players' approval," and sources said that it "experimented with three different types of composite balls in the D League last season." The new plan is to "develop a two-paneled ball, rather than the current eight-panel model." A two-panel design on composite balls "did not raise any complaints," and Spalding is "supposedly hoping that the feature can be used as a marketing tool" (ESPN.com, 9/8).