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The NBA has chosen another company to make their official game balls. After almost four decades of affiliation with Spalding, the NBA has switched to Wilson. The company provided basketballs in the first 37 years of the league.
The two companies signed a multi-year contract prior to the 2021-22 season. This was a big change for the league as Spalding was in charge of game balls from 1983 to 2021.
This article will reveal everything you need to know about the league's recent switch of basketball makers. We will also reveal why the league picked Wilson over Spalding.
Wilson is the official provider of the NBA game ball
After 37 years of providing the professional basketball league with balls, Spalding's contract came to an end. Due to this, the league had to sign another contract, and Wilson stepped in at the right time.
Salvatore LaRocca, the league's president of global partnerships, joked about the coincidence.
"In the first 74 NBA seasons, Wilson had the first 37 and Spalding had the next 37," LaRocca said Yahoo Sports. "So our running joke is these partnerships may change every 37 years.”
Chris Brickley, one of the most popular shooting trainers in the league, is a consultant with the basketball manufacturer. He helped the company develop the new gameball and said that the process was very simple.
"They didn’t try to reinvent the wheel and make some special basketball,” Brickley stated. “They kept it simple. They kept it how the NBA basketball has been.”
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LaRocca also pointed out that changing basketball partners has nothing to do with Spalding. The previous manufacturer is amazing and on top of the pyramid, according to the league's president of global partnerships.
Remembering Spalding's failed basketball experiment
Spalding has provided leagues from all around the world with high-quality basketballs that have been used for many decades. Unfortunately, the company also failed when it attempted to introduce a new type of game ball in 2006.
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The late David Stern, who was the league's commissioner at the time, considered this ball to be the future. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a massive failure. This was the first change to the ball game in 35 years, but it did not go well.
Players complained about the ball being slippery and not bouncing enough. Shaquille O'Neal, who played for the Miami Heat in the 2006-07 season, even compared it to the "cheap balls you buy at the toy store."
In December 2007, Stern recalled these new synthetic basketballs due to too many complaints from players. The league reverted to using leather basketballs and that's been the case ever since.
