The surface area of a basketball is approximately 88π square inches.

Wow....cool!  That is good to know !  ......maybe not.

Assuming you want to know the circumference, we are given the area is $88\pi.$

Now we have to take it and set it equal to the area of a circle's equation. 

$r^2\pi = 88\pi\\\implies r^2=88\\\implies r=\sqrt {88}\\\implies r=2\sqrt {22}$

The crcumference of a circle is $2\pi\cdot r\\\implies \boxed {4\sqrt{88}\pi}$