-— I agree, I am in no way a professional athlete, but I can tell when a basketball is underinflated immediately, -—
Basketballs have to bounce to a recognizable height. Scott Zolak, former Pats QB, said that a 2psi difference is negligible. It’s 16% below reg inflation. He called this the football equivalent to a speeding ticket for going 15& over the speed limit.
I compare it to too much pine tar on a bat, or excessive curve on a hockey stick. This isn’t the Black Sox scandal.
2lbs of PSI is not remotely negligible, in these contexts, these 2lbs of PSI are a 20% differential and a 20% under inflated ball, whether it be a football, basketball or soccer ball are all immediately noticeable by anyone who is familiar with what it should feel like.
If this was some guys out on a sunday tossing a pigskin around, maybe they would not be able to know because they had no frame of reference of how it should feel if properly inflated, but folks who play the game for a profession can’t tell immediately the equipment is under or overinflated by 20% is a claim that is just flat out nonsense.
This is like the guy at the tire shop filling your brand new tires to only about 24-25 lbs of pressure vs the proper 32lbs of PSI and claiming he didn’t notice... its flat out nonsense, and doesn’t pass the smell test.
The idea that 1-2lbs of PSI isn’t noticeable is garbage, its highly noticeable when you are talking about these pressures, it represents about 20% off, that’s noticeable by anyone who is familiar with what the ball should feel like.