A Better Basketball?

In the November 4, 2006 Science News Online article “Dribble Quibble: Experiments find that new basketball gets slick” (found at: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20061104/fob4.asp), Peter Weiss reported that the new standardized plastic basketballs used by the NBA do not exceed the former leather basketballs used.

This summer, the National Basketball Association, or NBA, introduced a newly designed plastic basketball from the sporting goods brand Spalding. For the past 35 years, Spalding provided the NBA with the former standard leather-covered basketball. Since the introduction of the new basketball, many NBA players have complained of the poorer performance level from the balls. Physicists at the University of Texas at Arlington, led by James L. Horwitz, performed various tests on the new plastic basketballs and old leather basketballs to compare the two materials. Horwitz and his colleagues slid the basketballs on silicon sheets, which mimic the friction coefficient of a human hand. Dry plastic basketballs traveled much less than the dry leather basketballs, yet when the balls were made damp to imitate sweat, the friction coefficient of the leather balls increased and the coefficient of the plastic balls were cut in half. Thus, the new plastic basketballs become increasingly slick, less elastic, and more uncontrollable.

Clarification of results may drive researchers in the search for truth. Spalding’s own research during the development of the new plastic basketballs found that the friction coefficient of the new balls outranked that of the leather balls. Conflict arose when NBA players started to complain of the new basketballs. Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, covered the costs for the University of Texas in order for Horwitz and other physicists to conduct their research. Thus, motivations of the scientists may not stem purely from curiosity, but from necessity and responsibility. Though initial results have already been submitted to Cuban and the NBA, Horwitz and his team continues to conduct research on the basketballs, including air tunnel tests, though Cuban or the NBA plan to change the balls. Here, more unabated curiosity of the scientists seems to play a part, as the researchers are no longer getting compensated for their studies.

Though the debate over which type of basketball is better may not apply widely to the general public, it does provide a unique concern that may indirectly affect the sports world and fans of the NBA. The evidence against plastic balls now exists, and though nothing is being done to change the standards of basketballs on the professional level, any future complaints surrounding the gear of the game may take longer to process. In terms of scientists, it is interesting that tests performed on the same ball ended with different outcomes, as shown by the mixed results from Spalding and the University of Texas. Though such research may not be pragmatic to humankind overall, at least private corporations are funding this type of research, not the university itself. The continued work of Horwitz should reveal interesting ideas about basketballs, but its usefulness may be in question.

Additional Sources:

"The Physics of Basketballs." UT Arlington. University of Texas, Arlington. 6 Nov. 2006 http://www.uta.edu/uta/gateway-features/horwitz-de.