Monday, December 11, 2006

New Year, Old Ball

Wow. Marc Stein broke the news a couple of hours ago, and I'm still in shock.

The old balls return on January 1.

David Stern admitted he made a mistake? He listened to the players? Honestly, I feel like I don't even know him anymore. This is still the man who made a 1-0 ruling in the Ron Artest situation, right? Can Sheed still call him Dictator?

I was really getting used to the new ball. There was that famous Vince Carter 3-pointer that died on the rim and went in to tie the Wizards. There was Amare Stoudemire's shot on Friday night that bounced off the rim twice, hit the top of the backboard, and then spun back into the basket.

You never knew what was going to happen with that microfiber thing.

Good for the players. Say goodbye to those nasty little cuts and hello to leather.

I need a sound bite from Rasheed Wallace immediately. If you hear of one, please send me the link.

Edit: I just had a thought. Will Kwame Brown revert to not being able to catch the ball?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good news for most players. Bad news for Vince Carter. One of the only clutch shots he's ever hit was because of the bounces of the new ball. Now he can go back to being soft in crunch time. As for other guys, will Antoine Walker actually be able to hit a shot again? It must be the balls, nobody can really be as bad as Walker has been. Can they? It's got to be the ball. Seriously, though, kudos for the Dictator! Bring back the leather!

Anonymous said...

I think this means that shaq is officially out for 2006. I see him returning post Jan. 1 so he doesn't have to play with the department style ball he loathed so much.

Anonymous said...

To paraphrase Sheed, "leather ball don't lie." Sucks for Vince and his bricks that roll through the rim with the new ball. After the New Year, they'll all turn into long rebounds. Time to welcome back his 7 for 22 shooting nights, ala Iverson.

It'll be interesting to see if the Big Bens of the world increase their rebounding stats after the change, since they'll be able to be more instinctive when figuring out how the ball will bounce off the rim.

ss...Walker has jumped the shark, no matter what ball they decide to use. I could whoop that fool in a game of H-O-R-S-E with a Nerf hoop, and I couldn't hit one NBA 3 with 20 tries. Old body, no workout regimen, addicted to bad shots. Recipe for futility.