A caller on a radio talk show asked this question indignantly, as if the basketball industry were purposely perpetrating a fraud, at worst, and foisting unnecessary decoration on a ball, at best. Before you accuse basketball manufacturers of making a needless fashion statement, consider that most basketball players need all the help they can get manipulating a basketball. A basketball is too big for all but the Kareems and Shaqs of the world to grasp with there fingers. Those “fake” seams are there to help you grip the ball (similarly, quarterbacks make sure there fingers make contact with the seams when passing Basketball manufacturers make two kinds of seams, narrow and wide. National Basketball Association professionals prefer the narrow–channel seams, while many amateurs, particularly young people with small hands , use wide channel seams Submitted by David Feldman
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