Ball Reviews Are In: Can’t Grip It, so Rip It

The vote is almost unanimous: The new NBA ball has some flaws, according to numerous players.

Shaquille O’Neal started the outcry by comparing the new ball to a cheap “toy store” type, and other players, Lakers among them, have concurred.

The NBA changed the ball for the first time in 35 years, using a micro-fiber composite instead of traditional leather. A league press release trumpeted the new material as providing “moisture management” resulting in “superior grip and feel,” although many of the players’ concerns are about the grip when the ball gets wet with sweat.

“I’m old school, so I love the old-school ball,” Kobe Bryant said. “We had to adjust to it last year when we played with it in the All-Star game and it got slippery. It was tough to kind of grip it or get control of it. It was really slippery when we were playing with it.”

Lamar Odom, who will handle the ball plenty this season, is predicting problems.

“By the second or third quarter in an NBA game, guys perspire a lot,” said Odom after Thursday’s practice. “Once that ball gets wet, it just kind of slips out of your hand. I guarantee you in the beginning of the season we’ll see a game probably lost on maybe just a simple pass, a guy trying to catch the ball -- boom. A guy going in for a layup by himself -- 3, 2, 1 -- the ball will probably slip right out of his hand.”

Bryant noted that the ball tended to stick in the net after a basket, which could slow a run-and-gun team such as the Phoenix Suns. No wonder Phoenix guard Steve Nash weighed in negatively. So did Miami guard Dwyane Wade, predicting there would be “a lot of bricks thrown up there early on.” O’Neal went a step further, saying the league executive who made the switch needed to have “his college degree revoked.”

Despite its apparent faults, the ball’s composite material eliminates the need for a break-in period, which was necessary for the current leather ball, and has greater consistency from ball to ball, according to the league.

Bryant called for a curbing of complaints.

“It’s just a ball,” he said. “Growing up, I played with all kinds of balls. I rolled up tape and used tape as a basketball. I played with a sock. I think I can play with this one.”

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Guard Smush Parker practiced Thursday after sitting out Wednesday because of a sore shoulder.... Individual game tickets for the upcoming season will go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. at all Ticketmaster locations, online at www.ticketmaster.com, and by phone at (800) 4-NBA-TIX. There is a limit of four tickets per person a game and tickets will not be available at the Staples Center box office Saturday. There are less than 1,000 tickets available for each Lakers home game.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com