One month before the National Basketball Association tips off, the question in league circles is not whether it is time to play ball, but whether the league office dropped the ball.
For those who haven't stayed on the ball this off-season, here's the upshot: there's a new Spalding to debut this season that the NBA introduced this summer. It's the first change in 35 years and only the second in 60 seasons. The basketball has a microfiber composite and supposedly better grip, moisture management and material coverage.
Material coverage? That's immaterial to this basketball fan. All that should matter is whether the best basketball players in the world are satisfied with it. And the impression in the early going as training camp opened this week was dubious.
Shaquille O'Neal told reporters the ball ""feels like one of those cheap balls that you buy at the toy store, indoor-outdoor balls,"" and that whoever decided to change it ""needs to have his college degree revoked.""
Heat coach Pat Riley offered his take after O'Neal.
""I'm right with him,"" Riley said. ""I think it's horrible ... It really does feel like an indoor-outdoor ball. We'll see how it works. Maybe they'll learn to love it, I don't know.""
At the Heat's media day and first practice on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, seven players were asked which ball was preferable. Not one chose the new model, which now has two interlocking cross-shaped panels rather than the eight oblong ones found on the old ball.
In Phoenix, meanwhile, the two-time reigning Most Valuable Player, Steve Nash, said the new basketball will change how players shoot and pass.
""I certainly won't have to lick my fingers,"" Nash said. ""The ball sticks to your hand. It's a big transition. It's extremely sticky.""
And while the players do have a month of training camp to get accustomed to it, Nash said, ""Right now I would say that the basketball sticks to the floor, it sticks to the backboard. It is different.""
The concerns have not gone unnoticed by the front office. While the players air their concerns, the league is going on the defensive.
""Sure, you hear some comments that aren't as positive as the overwhelming majority of people that we tested the ball with,"" Stu Jackson, executive vice president of basketball operations, said earlier this week.
""If you moisturize a leather ball, it also feels very slick,"" he added. ""But this new ball has a better grip when it's wet than a leather ball.""
So, who's to believe here? Did the NBA ball things up by unnecessarily introducing something newfangled? Or are the players overreacting to what the league says involved rigorous on-court and laboratory evaluations? The tendency here is to believe the guys doing the shooting, passing and rebounding on the court.
But the front office has the final say, and Jackson, the league executive, thinks this ball is superior: ""Everyone that handles the ball loves the grip and the feel of the ball.""
Tell that to Shaq, who on Tuesday lost the handle on his trademark six-foot hook-shot three times in a span of 15 minutes.
