The New England Patriots and their actions during “Deflategate” are still very fresh in everyone’s minds. Opinions on whether the alteration or deflation of game balls significantly effected the outcome of a football game varied across the board, but nevertheless the Pats and Tom Brady were significantly punished by the league.
What if something like that happened in basketball? Obviously players all have a certain way they like balls to feel in their hands (I couldn’t help myself), but has there been any cases of players or teams deflating or inflating balls?
Recently Shaq said on a podcast that there were many instances in which he let some air out of game balls during his playing days.
But long before “Deflategate,” the practice of putting extra air in or letting it out of a game ball — beyond the regulated amount — was used by some of the NBA’s biggest teams and stars.
Take Shaquille O’Neal, for instance.
“Sometimes, in the games during all my championship runs, if a ball was too hard, I let air out,” the former All-Star center said in a recent episode of “The Big Podcast With Shaq.” “I’d have a needle. A friend of mine would have a needle and I would get the game ball. … I needed that extra grip, but I wasn’t doing that for cheating purposes. I just needed the extra grip for my hands so I could palm it, a la Michael Jordan, the way he used to palm it.
O’Neal said he’d walk up to the ball rack before a game, “Get the ball, ‘Tsssss’ let a little bit of air out, squeeze it — OK, good.”
Was he cheating? He believes not.
“Because, first of all, I’m not aware of any letter of the law that says, you can’t let air out of the ball,” O’Neal said. “I’m not aware of that. Second of all, it’s all about my [comfort level]. A lot of times, if the balls have too much air in them, they’re too bouncy. I didn’t want them to be bouncy. I needed that grip.”
His teammates didn’t complain, either, he said.
“No,” he said, “especially when you’re winning,”
That’s pretty interesting comments given what we just went through with Tom Brady, but it seems that Shaq was pretty candid with what he did back in the day.
I’m not sure how much the games were impacted by what Shaq did, but it obvious nobody ever picked up on it. With him coming out and saying this, it makes me wonder if more players are secretly deflating balls when they don’t like the way they feel prior to game time.
What do you think? Was it fair or foul of Shaq to deflate balls during his playing days?