ghosts tell stories

In every sport, the ball tells the story of the game.

The baseball is small, smooth, aerodynamic - built for speed and distance. The football is rough and oblong, made to rocket through space.

But the basketball is different. It isn’t made to fly, or roll, or project through space. It is made to be handled, gripped, bounced and shamgodded. It is an alchemy of air and solid, and this gives it magic. As a rude boy reporter once asked an NBA legend: “How many springs does an official ball have in it? Why does it bounce then?” Why indeed.

In the game’s earliest days, when dribbling was disallowed the ball never bounced, the ball was smooth and laced. Only with the advent of dribbling and driving did it become pebbled and grooved. The rude boy wasn’t wrong. Air alone does not bounce. But air combined with a tactile surface - air we can actually grip in our hands - that is where the magic happens.