Welcome back old friend
On Tuesday, David Stern will announce that starting Jan 1, the league will switch back to the old leather balls. All the player complaints about the feel of the ball finally added up and Stern swallowed his ego and decided to make the switch. However, the switch probably wouldn’t have been made had Stern not had an opportunity to save face. Players started complaining about cuts on their hands because of the high friction synthetic material. When players are sustaining injuries, it’s easy for Stern to pull the trigger with the players health in mind.
While changing the ball in the first place (rumored to be because of the Rockets owner’s wife’s animal activism) was a terrible move, Stern showed the good sense to fix his mistake and show why he’s currently the best commissioner in sports.
