Spalding TF 1000 Legacy FIBA Basketball

Product Information

Competitive considerations: One factor that’s probably obvious, but should be mentioned is that if you’re playing competitively, whether in high school, college, or somewhere else, you should use the ball you’re going to be using in games. The official NCAA ball is the Wilson, international/FIBA is the Molten, and NBA’s is Spalding. Your high school or private game may vary, but if you want to carry over that consistency to the games, you should seek out the ball standard and buy it for your practice environment.

To start, we questioned the group about how much the grooves on balls matter. The Under Armour ball we tested came fresh with a cool looking, bright orange Under Armour logo inscribed on its exterior. The TF-1000 classic basketball belongs to the middle end of the spectrum when it comes to pricing. It’s not a cheap low-end rubber basketball, nor is it a top of the line genuine leather basketball such as what the NBA uses.There’s no reason to believe it won’t endure long-term use, either. The only negative about the Molten, if there is one, is that it’s the international and Olympic standard, not the NBA/NCAA one. If you’re training to ball in college or the NBA, it’s recommended you train with the official balls in those arenas. However, it turns out inconsistencies like this come at a detriment to the shooter, as trying to get your fingers aligned with the seams on the ball with a design like that would be problematic as a method of generating a consistent shooting touch.

Age considerations: You’ve probably seen videos of little kids pushing all of their weight into an oversized basketball at a way-too-tall rim. As professional shooting coach James Pauley told us, this is one of the worst things you can do for a kid’s shooting form, as nothing about launching all of your might into a ball makes sense for the long term. Past that, common characteristics and criticisms of bad basketballs were qualified: How was the grip on the balls? Did they lose air easily? How much did they cost?hours later, we returned to the balls and measured the PSI levels on each, noting how much pressure was lost during the duration. Most balls started around 6-7 PSI.