The Problem With The NBA's New Basketball

The NBA has a new basketball and it’s airless, but it could break the NBA. #nbaShow more

This is the NBA’s new basketball and it’s airless which means you never have to pump it cause it’s full of holes, but players have a history with ball changes not going so well, causing airballs, anger, and bleeding so what’s the big deal about this new futuristic looking basketball that looks like it can’t be used outdoors and why does the NBA want to risk all that again? We’re going to find out because this basketball might break the NBA and how we play basketball forever. The answer might surprise you since the NBA’s basketball has changed a lot through the years, from a a soccer ball in 1881 to the full grain leather Spalding basketball in 1983. Most recently the NBA changed the ball in 2021 and in the beginning of the season, players were missing shots badly…

The basketball stayed the same material. When the NBA last changed materials, there was an even worse reaction but let’s understand what this new basketball is made of because these new ones are going to be 3D printed out of an elastomeric polymer, basically something similar in molecular structure to natural rubbers. The ball still has the 8 panels like a traditional basketball, including seams, but oh yeah, it has hexagonal holes.

The biggest challenge was for it to bounce similar to other basketballs. The way current basketballs work, when a basketball makes contract with the ground, it compresses which pushes against the air inside the ball. The air pushes back against the ground depending on the level of air pressure and the ball bounces back up.

But without air pressure, these new basketballs are more like those small bouncy balls, when the ball hits the ground, the polymer chains in rubber uncoil and straighten kind of like a spring which causes the ball to bounce back up. Wilson took several years to find the right material that gives a consistent bounce similar to current basketballs. The main advantage of this type of basketball is that you don’t have to worry about a basketball deflating or popping.

According to Wilson, they have rigorously tested the basketball, including swinging at the ball with a baseball bat, ensuring that the basketball is durable, but they are hoping to avoid the mistakes that happened 17 years ago. The last time the NBA made a change so drastic using science was in 2006. The NBA changed from leather to microfiber composite and it broke the NBA. They also stated that these new basketballs would remove the break in period a basketball needs, but just 1 month into the season, players already had some things to say like Shaq who said “it feels like one of those cheap balls you buy at the store” and that whoever did this needs to be fired. MVP Steve Nash said “it tears his fingers apart”. LeBron rival Deshawn Stevenson said “I HATE IT”.

NBA’s best shooter at the time Ray Allen said “I have to constantly put lotion all over my hands because my fingers are cracking and it’s causing splits on my fingertips”. Wait, from a basketball?And he wasn’t the only one. Jason Terry showed reporters what looked like paper cuts on their fingers, Dirk said it made his hands bleed. Eddy Curry said it stuck to his middle finger.

Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, wasn’t convinced by the NBA saying the ball was performing extraordinarily well and commissioned physicists from the University of Texas to test the ball and what he found proved the NBA was lying. The Cross Traxxion ball retained more frictive dirt and was slippier when it absorbed any moisture like sweat, but perhaps the worst of it all, they found the ball bounced 5-8% less than the old one, and was 30% more erratic in how it bounced.

Certain shot release angles means different velocities of the ball on it’s descent, essentially the slower a ball hits the rim, the softer the touch. Think those Nikola Jokic floaters and hooks shots around the rim. But if these new balls will have different velocities in the air due to smaller surface area and less air resistance, then players will also have to modify their shots to get that same soft touch.

Which leads to my third issue, dirt and sweat can get deposited inside the basketball and change the play of the ball over time. It could make air flow through the ball a bit different, the ball a bit more lopsided even the slightest because of that lattice structure with holes, related to my 4th issue, how will the elastic polymers lattice pattern impact grip? With less surface area, less contact points for your fingers, and in an NBA game, every small percentage plays a role. I mean we’ve seen players not be able to pick up the ball ****************************and that could get worse. Does this mean we’re going to see more turnovers?