USA Basketball 2014: How Shooters Like Stephen Curry And Klay Thompson Adjust To The FIBA Ball (Photo: Poor Man’s Commish / LetsGoWarriors.com)
MENDENHALL CENTER, LAS VEGAS, NV — The circumference of the official regulation basketball used by FIBA is 30.7 inches compared to the NBA’s 29-7/8″ and, according to Steve Smith on NBA TV, feels a little bit lighter and requires shooters to make a slight adjustment.
“It takes a few days when they’re brand new,” Golden State Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson said yesterday after practice “You’ve got to break them in. It just has a different feel, but it only takes a couple days.”
It really only took Thompson half a day, at least relatively speaking. He won his first three-point shooting contest after Day One’s practice, beating his #SplashBrothers backcourt mate, Stephen Curry, as well as DeMarcus Cousins and Gordon Hayward — on Day Two, however, Kyle Korver got the best of Thompson in a head-to-head shootout.
“It’s a little different,” said Curry of the FIBA ball, “If you just get a couple workouts in and feel it in your hand and see how it releases off your hand, it becomes more natural, the more you play with it.”
A master of preparation, Curry had it all planned out prior to USA Basketball Men’s National Team (#USABMNT) training camp.
“I worked out with it about two weeks before I got here,” Curry told LetsGoWarriors, “It’s pretty comfortable now.”
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