Basket-Ball, More than a sport
Basketball was invented in 1891 at Springfield College, Springfield Massachusetts, by Canadian born Dr. James Naismith.
His charge was to create an easy game to assimilate without too many physical contacts and focusing on skill and power. The sport was invented in an effort to find a sport that could be played indoors during the long cold winter months. It had to be playable indoors or on any kind of ground, and by a large number of players all at once.
Rules of the game
• The game of basketball is played by 2 teams of 5 players on a court.
• The object of each team is to score by putting a ball into the opponent’s basket and to prevent the other team from scoring in yours
• The ball can be advanced only by passing with the hands or by dribbling the ball on the floor.
• The Game: To start the game, an official tosses the ball up (Jump Ball) between two opponents who stand in the smaller circle.
• All other players may take any position they wish, outside the larger center circle.
• The two opposition players jump to tap the ball to a teammate, then each team tries to advance the ball toward the opponent’s goal to score by shooting it through their goal.
Internationalisation of the Basket Ball
The International Basketball Federation was formed in 1932. At this time, the organization only oversaw amateur players. FIBA dropped the distinction between amateur and professional players in 1989, and in 1992, professional players played for the first time in the Olympic Games. In 1992 at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, the famous players of the National Basketball Association (NBA) are allowed to represent the United States for the first time. This team, designate « Dream Team » by the international media, was the best basketball team ever formed.
The NBA suffered a drop in popularity during the late 1970s, but was resuscitated, principally through the growing popularity of its most prominent players. Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics, and Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers are credited with injecting excitement into the league in the 1980s through their superior skills and decade-long rivalry. During the late 1980s Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls rose to stardom and helped the Bulls dominate the NBA during the early 1990s. A new generation of basketball stars, including Shaquille O’Neal of the Orlando Magic have sustained the NBA’s growth in popularity.
Basketball is now one of the world’s most popular sports, with more than 450 million players in 2007. Many championships have been created on all five continents, especially in Europe and Asia, where sport has been booming since the 2000s thanks to the internationalisation of the NBA. Many variants of basketball have developed, such as wheelchair basketball, streetball (“street basketball”) or three-on-three basketball.
Hall of Fame of the NBA
In 1959, a basketball hall of fame was founded in Springfield, Massachusetts, site of the first game. Its rosters include the names of great players, coaches, referees and people who have contributed significantly to the development of the game. The hall of fame has people who have accomplished many goals in their career in basketball. An upstart organization, the American Basketball Association, emerged in 1967 and briefly threatened the NBA’s dominance until the ABA-NBA merger in 1976. Today the NBA is the top professional basketball league in the world in terms of popularity, salaries, talent, and level of competition.
The NBA has featured many famous players, including defensive genius Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics ; big men like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal ; European stars Dirk Nowitzki and three legends Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
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