Problem with is_tax in WP_Query loop

Question

The code below is the 2nd of 4 loops in "page-balls.php". Everything else is working correctly.

I'm trying to display a tennis ball graphic if the post being retrieved has a the term "tennis-ball" term. It's not working. Is this because the PAGE does not have the term TENNIS-BALL?

How can I make this work correctly?

<?php       
$args = array (
'post_type' => 'balls',
'orderby' => 'menu_order',
'order' => 'ASC'                
) ;

$myQuery = new WP_Query( $args ) ;
?>

<?php if ($myQuery->have_posts()) : while ($myQuery->have_posts()) : $myQuery->the_post(); ?>

<?php if(is_tax( 'ball-types', 'tennis-ball' )) : ?> 
    SHOW THE TENNIS BALL GRAPHIC
<?php else : ?>
    SHOW THE PLACEHOLDER GRAPHIC
<?php endif ; ?>

<?php endif ; ?>

<?php wp_reset_postdata() ; ?>

Answer 1

The codex on is_tax:

This Conditional Tag checks if a custom taxonomy archive page is being displayed.

That is not the condition you want to check for.

Take a look at the has_term function and use it like so:

if( has_term( 'tennis-ball', 'ball-types', $post->ID ) ) { 
    /* SHOW THE TENNIS BALL GRAPHIC */
} else {
    /* SHOW THE PLACEHOLDER GRAPHIC */
}

And as an aside, remove some of the <?php opening and closing tags. They serve no purpose and simply make your code less legible.