At School I Hated Sports,

with a vengeance, 

photographs Wilson, with one exception, basket ball, which I really enjoyed, so it was with some interest I looked at a new basketball, 

luckily I started playing after the leather basket balls had been replaced by the ones commonly used today, but now welcome the new ball on the block, behold the Wilson Airless Prototype which was unveiled last month, during the NBA All-Star Weekend, when Houston Rockets forward “KJ” Martin was filmed bouncing it around a bit and throwing it at the basket, although Wilson has kept the traditional binding pattern of the regular basketball, ensuring that players can still get their fingers into the seam lines for better grip, the prototype has a very futuristic look, because containing air pressure inside is no longer a requirement, the ball itself is see-through, with hundreds of small hexagonal holes allowing air to pass through,

working with manufacturing company EOS, Wilson reportedly 3D-printed its airless prototype using the selective laser sintering (SLS) method of additive manufacturing to fuse several layers of polymer powder, the most difficult part of the process, making the ball rebound,

one slight worry about the hexagonal holes is that apparently it will not allow you to spin the basketball on your fingertips, but will the new ball catch on? the one used is just a prototype, it remains to be seen if Wilson launches the airless basketball commercially, crikey, this post has brought school memories of playing basketball for the school flooding back!