Polycarbonate and acrylic have a unique trade off. Polycarbonate is a material that is much stronger than acrylic and many customers choose polycarbonate for that reason. However, polycarbonate is much louder than acrylic and acrylic is unlikely to break anyway. In fact, you cannot break acrylic by playing basketball. You could break it with a slingshot, BB gun, or other high impact vandalism. Under those circumstances, polycarbonate is likely to hold up better. Acrylic is the best thing next to tempered glass