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The NBA has changed the ball this season. After 38 years with Spalding, the American competition has returned to its origins recovering its former supplier: Wilson. Just before the summer the presentation of such an agreement took place, and for weeks we have been seeing it become a reality in every game of the regular season.
Until now little has been said about it and if something has changed. It is a new ball, one that despite having been made like the previous one, is obviously different. Players like Trae Young or Jamal Murray took part in the creation process, but of course that does not imply that it is the perfect ball. And we comment on this because Drew Hanlen, coach of many players in the League, has commented that the change of the ball has had a great impact on the game, which is based on the decrease in outside success. As he explains, 17 of the 22 All-Stars last season who have shot 3s are below 36 percent.
The coach tells us about the best players in the league, but if we go to the general data we find that in the same way there has been a decrease in benefits. To be exact, it has gone from 34.6% of the 2020-21 campaign to 34.2% of the present one. Is it because of the brand change? This is how Paul George explains his view of the matter.
“It’s not an excuse or anything like that, but I already said it, it’s just a different ball. It does not have the same feel or smoothness as the Spalding ball had. You will see that this year there will be more mistakes. I think many more have been seen airballs so far this season. So I repeat, it is not an excuse, but it is something different. It is not a secret, “said the Clippers forward a few days ago.
There are more opinions. CJ McCollum, president of the NBPA (Players Association) recently suggested that they are still adjusting to the ball; that yes, he later stressed that the errors in the launch are only of the shooters themselves. He is right, but it is obvious that any change, and especially in something so essential for the development of the game, needs a period of acclimatization.
(Photograph by Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
