Bad Ball

SPORTS

As the NBA season continues into spring, it's once again playing with traditional leather basketballs. And grateful players may have two University of Texas, Arlington, physics professors to thank. When the season began last fall, the NBA put into use a new synthetic ball devised by Spaulding that supposedly offered better grip and bounce. Players complained it actually behaved more erratically and was slipperier. They also claimed it was cutting their fingers. The Dallas Mavericks commissioned UT Arlington's Jim Horwitz, physics department chairman, to do comparative tests on the balls. He and physics professor Kaushik De concluded the composite ball had a better grip when it was dry but became slipperier once it got wet with sweat from players' hands. It also had less bounce, they said, and didn't bounce as straight as leather ones. The NBA cut the new ball's debut short and returned to leather balls in January. Clearly, a slam-dunk decision.

Copyright AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION Mar 2007
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