Did you know that early basketballs had laces? They had to be unlaced, pumped up, tested, and re-laced repeatedly until the air pressure of the rubber bladder inside was just right. These balls evolved to include external air pump holes, but the laces remained until the 1930s, when laceless designs were first introduced. The version [...]
Did you know that early basketballs had laces? They had to be unlaced, pumped up, tested, and re-laced repeatedly until the air pressure of the rubber bladder inside was just right.
These balls evolved to include external air pump holes, but the laces remained until the 1930s, when laceless designs were first introduced.
The version shown in this early advertisement was a Spalding No. M Official Basket Ball. Spalding, Reach, Rawlings, and other manufacturers each had multiple versions of basketballs. Spalding introduced the first laceless designs in 1932.
Official basketballs were slightly larger once then they are today and sometimes they were nicknamed “pumpkins.” Palming the ball was so rare that few players did it. The practice rarely made sense anyway, since it was against the rules for a player to shoot the ball if he had already dribbled.
Awesome and wow…how did that ball bounce on the laces…was it a smooth bounce?
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Hey Boone that’s right the bounce wasn’t always smooth, according to accounts from people who played with those balls back then. And, since they used to throw for goal I suspect players used the laces to their advantage in shooting too.
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