Snapshot from Practice 14.2: New Ball Goes Flat in the NBA

On October 31, 2006, the National Basketball Association (NBA) opened its 57th season with new official game balls. The new ball, manufactured by Spalding, featured a new design and a new material that together were believed to offer better grip, feel, and consistency than the previous leather ball. The material was microfiber composite with moisture management that provided superior grip and feel throughout the course of a game. Additionally, the new composite material eliminated the need for a break-in period, which is necessary for a leather ball, and achieved consistency from ball to ball.

The NBA and Spalding subjected the ball to a rigorous evaluation process that included a laboratory and on-court testing process. Every NBA team received the new ball and had the opportunity to use it in practice. The ball was also tested in the NBA summer development league.

At the press conference announcing the shift from leather to microfiber balls, NBA commissioner David Stern pronounced, "The advancement that Spalding has made to the new game ball ensures that the best basketball players in the world will be playing with the best basketball in the world."

Animal rights advocates applauded the shift from leather to microfiber. Such was not the case for the players who would actually use the new ball. Grumblings emerged immediately when training camps opened in October. Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas said the new basketball "got slippery" when it came in contact with even small amounts of sweat. Then Miami Heat center Shaquille O'Neil said, "It feels like one of those cheap balls that you buy at a toy store."

Some players, including league MVP Steve Nash, began complaining that the new ball was producing small cuts on their hands. "It's awful [the friction burns], its like an irritant . . . sometimes I even have to tape my fingers in practice." Perhaps LeBron James from the Cleveland Cavaliers best summed up the players' attitudes toward the NBA's introduction of the new ball when he said, "You can change the dress code, you can make our shorts shorter, but when you take our basketball away from us, that's not a transition we can handle."

On December 1, 2006, four weeks into the season, the NBA players union filed an unfair labor practice suit because the league management switched to the new ball without consulting the players. Ten days later, the NBA announced that they would revert to the old leather ball beginning January 1, 2007. In a terse statement, Commissioner David Stern said, "Our players' response to this particular composite ball has been overwhelmingly negative and we are acting accordingly."

The failure to check with the players (the end users) and get buy-in for the new basketball was loudly criticized by the press. "How they could actually even get it that far and not have run it by the players is just an amazing, amazing exercise in ineptitude," Rob Frankel, a Los Angeles-based branding expert, told Bloomberg News.

How did the culture of the NBA affect this project? What could the NBA have done differently to increase the likelihood of success?