Shaquille O’Neal Hates His New Balls

By Mark Hoerrner

Miami Heat center Shaquille O’Neal spends the better part of most days playing with his balls. Most of the time, it’s a positive experience that ends in a good workout, but a change in the way the balls feel has raised his ire. Perhaps it’s simply in the way he handles them or that they are smoother and rounder than he expected, but they are definitely different from his older, more supple balls.

"I think the new ball is terrible," O'Neal told the Associated Press on Monday. "It's the worst decision some expert, whoever did it, made. The NBA's been around how long? A hundred years? Fifty years? So to change it now…whoever that person is needs his college degree revoked. It's a terrible decision."

Shaq might be a little rusty on his National Basketball Association history, but at least he’s close: in 60 years, it’s just the second time the league has altered its game balls. The last time was more than three decades ago. Most fans today will likely not recall the change.

Spalding claims that the new ball will reduce moisture through the use of a microfiber technology that will help players grip the ball better than the current leather ball.

"Spalding's continual efforts to advance basketball technology have yielded the optimal ball, one that is worthy of the new Official NBA Game Ball designation," said Scott Creelman, Spalding group president and CEO. "We are honored that the NBA collaborated with us to make this change."

Shaq, however, was less complimentary about Spalding’s efforts.
"Feels like one of those cheap balls that you buy at the toy store, indoor-outdoor balls," O'Neal told the AP. "I look for shooting percentages to be way down and turnovers to be way up, because when the ball gets wet you can't really control it. Whoever did that needs to be fired. It was terrible, a terrible decision. Awful. I might get fined for saying that, but so what?"

The league noted that the leather balls usually need a "breaking-in" period that will become obsolete with the newer balls. Also, the introduction of the new Spalding model will create a single standard in the league for balls rather than a multiple-ball selection currently used by teams.

Spalding claims that the ball is bouncier because it has fewer panels and is rounder. Still, Shaq isn’t the only player to voice a concern.

"I don't like it, because it's different," Heat backup center Michael Doleac said to the AP. "You get used to something, you don't want to change it. But in three years, we'll probably all look back and not be able to imagine playing with anything else."

One of the Heat’s players, guard Dwayne Wade, has been playing roulette with balls all summer. The new ball will be his third ball change in four months. Coming off a season with the traditional leather ball, he had to adjust to the smaller ball used by the FIBA World Championship model for international play. Now, he’s tasked with getting used to the new league ball.

"Now I've got to make another adjustment with a ball that I haven't shot with at all and it's going to be a challenge," Wade said. "That means it's going to take a lot of late nights for me, I'll tell you that, to get really adjusted to the ball because I have no choice. Hopefully over time, you'll hear nothing about it and we'll all stop complaining, but I think rebounds are going to go up this year. All around the league, I think there's going to be a lot of bricks thrown up there early on."

The ball will be required for league play with the start of the new season this fall, the league said in a statement. Fans can currently order the new ball through the NBA store.

"The advancements that Spalding has made to the new game ball ensure that the best basketball players in the world will be playing with the best basketball in the world," said NBA Commissioner David Stern.

Despite the league’s support, only time will tell if Shaq and other NBA players will become comfortable with their new balls and learn to handle them properly.