cradling my composite game ball and slurping on a can of New Coke

Good riddance composite NBA game ball. The only thing I liked about that thing (not that I ever felt it in person, maybe I will go purchase one as BJL suggests) was that it wasn't made from animals. But the ball clearly sucked. Minor kwachas to Stern for the about-face, major demerits to him for instituting the new ball to begin with. If you've ever felt a properly-conditioned leather NBA game ball, you know that shit didn't need to be rethunk or replaced. It was, and hopefully will be again, a nearly-perfect thing.

Also minor demerits to him for his comments about replacing the new ball:

"Although testing performed by Spalding and the NBA demonstrated that the new composite basketball was more consistent than leather, and statistically there has been an improvement in shooting, scoring, and ball-related turnovers, the most important statistic is the view of our players."

1) More consistent? Are the leather balls they had been using pock-marked and lopsided? You can't produce enough consistent leather basketballs to keep 30 teams happy? I don't buy this.

2) "Statistically there has been an improvement in shooting, scoring, etc" -- if you watched the new ball in action at all, you would plainly attribute any increase in shooting and scoring to the fact that the ball just died on the rim -- shots that were actually missed suddenly found a way to crawl in. Several times a game. So the players weren't actually playing better with the new ball; the game just got easier. I imagine you'd see a similar spike in offensive numbers if you increased the diameter of the basket by 25% or eliminated the rule that requires dribbling.

That's about it with that.