The NBA will switch from Spalding to Wilson game balls beginning in Season 2021-22 as the former's contract will expire soon. It will be a mutual decision by the league and the sports equipment provider, marking the end of nearly four decades of partnership. The return of Wilson will coincide with the NBA's 75th season.
The new deal will also cover the league's other competitions, meaning Wilson balls will be used in the WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League, and Basketball Africa League (BAL). it's actually a reunion of sort for the NBA and Wilson as the latter was in use by the league for 37 years before Spalding's entry in 1983.
According to Yahoo Sports, the NBA will require Wilson to create a new generation of game balls that will retain the specifications of the previous standard. It is understood that the main material will remain as leather but for use by the WNBA, Wilson will provide a composite make.
And to ensure that the new game balls will meet the specs preferred by NBA players, league officials have mandated that Wilson must collaborate with the NBPA advisory board for the game balls' final cut that will be in use during the basketball games.
"Wilson basketball engineers, product designers, and player insights specialists will work with the NBPA advisory board to create the new game balls," the report said.
In a statement, the NBA confirmed that the new partnership with Wilson will commence soon and that the new game balls will be manufactured "using the same materials, eight-panel configuration, and performance specifications as current game balls and will also source the same leather currently used in the NBA."
The league noted that Wilson produced the first NBA game balls in 1946 and that led to more than three decades of a productive working relationship. In working out the new deal, the NBA said: "We look forward to growing the game of basketball together."
Interestingly, the planned switch by the NBA has underscored that leather will remain as the basic material for the new game balls. As CBS Sports noted, an experiment in 2006 proved disastrous for most NBA players.
Spalding introduced synthetic game balls during that year and players widely rejected the new material. In no time, league officials were forced to switch back to leather.
For the most part, the NBA favors the use of balls made of leather but composite balls have also grown into some specific players. Lonzo Ball, for instance, is known to perform better when a composite ball is in use during a game, per the same report.
