Does the Basketball Hoop Backboard Material Matter? - Essential Facts to Know about Basketball Goal Backboards

Anyone who goes shopping for a basketball hoop is first confronted by a dazzlingly large array of different choices

. The first and perhaps the most important of which is what basketball backboard material you are going to choose. The four options available for basketball backboards are acrylic, polycarbonate, glass, and molded plastic. Each have their own personal advantages and disadvantages depending upon what you want your basketball goal to do.

Rebound

If you know anything about basketball, you already know how important the bank shot is to a good game. A skilled player can use the backboard to their advantage to make shots from tricky angles. But the more rigid the backboard is, the more rebound it has, and the easier it is to make these kinds of shots. If this is important to you, then you should certainly choose a backboard material that offers a very high level of rebound. The best in that regard is glass, because of its rigid construction. And the worst in this area is probably molded plastic, because it wobbles a lot when struck with a basketball.

Durability

Durability can mean two things: how long your basketball backboard will last before not being useable and how much abuse it can withstand without breaking. For kids, this isn't typically a big concern because they aren't too rough on a basketball hoops. But if you expect adults to play frequently on it, you should pay attention to how durable your basketball hoop is.

The least durable basketball backboard materials are typically acrylic and molded plastic. And materials that are designed to put up with a little bit more punishment are heat tempered glass and polycarbonate. Generally, if you have a choice between an acrylic hoop and a polycarbonate one that are similar in other respects, you should opt for the polycarbonate one most of the time.

Sun Staining

This point is mostly about how your basketball backboard looks, not how it performs. While acrylic and polycarbonate are generally excellent materials, they do have a tendency to turn yellow after being left out in the sun for a couple years. If this is a concern for you, you should probably opt for a glass backboard, which doesn't change color due to sun exposure, or a molded plastic basketball goal, because it is opaque and sun light doesn't pass through it.

Price

Last but certainly not least, what basketball backboard material you choose is going to have a big affect on how much your basketball backboard will cost you. The absolute cheapest hoops are the molded plastic models, which can sometimes run you just a hundred dollars or less. And the most expensive ones are the glass backboards, which are usually five or six hundred dollars on the low end and can cost up to 2500 dollars for genuinely pro quality goals. Be careful though, as more expensive doesn't mean better all the time.

Does the Basketball Hoop Backboard Material Matter? - Essential Facts to Know about Basketball Goal Backboards

By: Luther Stockton

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