When you use texture object, it's going to apply the texture to the wrong side of the sphere (unfortunately)
Attached here is a quick 15 second model, where when you apply a texture to it, the texture will appear on the inside of the model, and not the outside (Hopefully a sphere doesn't need properly UV mapping, I suck at that)
To apply a texture:
load image
texture object (the sphere, and the picture to texture it with)
move object (the sphere - into the the position you want it, I'd guess you want it so the player is inside the sphere...)
...maybe one day I'll finish a project
