After soccer and cricket, basketball is the world’s third most popular sport. With the NBA branching out into more continents worldwide, like Africa, and offering players multi-million dollar contracts, the sport is always in the news and constantly draws in new fans.
Most basketball fans can tell you who the best players are, where all the teams play and who the greatest of all time is, but not many know the history of basketball and how the sport came to be. In case you’ve ever wondered yourself, we’ve put together a brief history of basketball.
An alternative to football
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Basketball was invented by Dr James Naismith, an instructor and graduate student at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts. Why he created the sport has been hotly debated, some argue that Naismith was asked to create a sport that was less physical than American Football, while others say that it was in fact created to keep football players in shape in the off-season.
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In December 1891, Naismith came up with a game that was played between two teams of nine players each, and required the teams to shoot a ball into a peach basket in order to score a point. Initially, the baskets were sealed, so every time a point was scored, the game had to be halted so that the janitor could use a ladder to retrieve the ball. It didn’t take long for them to remove the bottom of the baskets.
The original rules
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Originally there were just 13 rules that were used to govern play, here are a just a few of the most important ones:
- The ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands.
- The ball may be batted in any direction with one or both hands.
- A player cannot run with the ball and must throw it from the spot on which he catches it, allowance will be made for a man who catches the ball when running at good speed.
- The ball must be held in or between the hands, and the arms or body must not be used for holding it.
- No shouldering, holding, pushing, tripping or striking in any way the person of an opponent shall be allowed.
- A foul is striking the ball with the fist, violation of rules 3 and 4, and such as described in rule 5.
- If either side makes three consecutive fouls it shall count as a goal for the opponents.
- A goal shall be made when the ball is thrown or batted from grounds into the basket and stays there. If the ball rests on the edge and the opponent moves the basket it shall count as a goal.
- The time shall be fifteen-minute halves, with five-minute rests between.
- The side making the most goals in that time shall be declared the winner. In the case of a draw, the game may, by agreement of the captains, be continued until another goal is made.
Taking the world by storm
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It didn’t take long for the game of basketball to go international, in 1893 the first international basketball match was organised and the sport was adopted in countries like India, Japan and China.
In 1895 the first inter-collegiate basketball game was played between Minnesota A&M and Hamline University – the match was a 9-on-9 contest and was won by Minnesota. A year later, the first 5-on-5 game was played between Iowa and the University of Chicago.
The sport continued to gain traction and by 1898 a host of collegiate and professional leagues had formed, with most major colleges sporting a team by 1900. By 1909 the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) had taken over and would continue to run collegiate basketball.
Becoming an Olympic sport
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While the sport grew, it was governed on a collegiate level but was yet to be run by an international organisation. Pressure from fans to have the sport included in the Olympic Games began to grow and in June 1932, FIBA (Federation International Basketball Association) was formed.
FIBA would go on to make basketball an Olympic sport and in 1936, with the sport featuring in its first Games, the US National Team would go on to win gold. Naismith would live to see the day that the sport he created became an Olympic sport.
In 1950, the first ever
FIBA Basketball World Cup was hosted and won by Argentina. The tournament has been hosted every three to four years since, with the United States and Yugoslavia having won the tournament the most number of times at five a-piece.
The biggest basketball league in the world
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On 6 June, 1946 the
Basketball League was founded in New York City as the
Basketball Association of America (BAA). Just three years later, the BAA would merge with rival league, the National Basketball League (NBL), to form the now infamous National Basketball Association (NBA).
The NBA is the most significant professional basketball league in the world in terms of popularity, salaries, talent, and level of competition. Some of the most well-known and well paid athletes in the world play in the NBA. Who would have thought that a simple game that started in a college gym, would go on to become a multi-billion dollar game loved and enjoyed by millions around the world.
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FIBA Basketball World Cup around the corner, you can bet on all of the action starting with the first game between
Poland and Venezuela, right the way through to the final.
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