The National Basketball Association has announced that the league will stop using the microfiber composite basketballs it has been employing this season, and will return to use of leather basketballs as in previous years.
Players had complained that the new basketballs became very slippery during games and the microfiber coating would cut the players’ fingers after repeated use. In response to the hailstorm of complaints from players, NBA Commissioner David Stern announced that the league will go back to the old basketballs beginning January 1 of next year.
The decision is a blow to animal rights activists, who it is rumored convinced the league to use artificial basketballs instead of the traditional leather ones. As All Headline News reports:
The few positive comments about the non-leather NBA basketball have come from the animal rights group PETA.
PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, touted the new ball as a victory for animal lovers and cows the world over.
"Although basketball may be a game to us," says PETA’s website, "it’s no fun for cows whose skins are used to make basketballs." The website also said, "It’s easy to moo-ve away from leather."
And easy to move back., too
PETA did not do its homework, or is being deliveberately obscurantist in its press release, because the cow hide used for leather basketballs comes not from secret NBA farms but from cows raised for beef. That hides of the same cows are also used for basketballs would seem to be an example of wise stewardship of resources.