History and Rules of Basketball

When people play basketball, they usually don’t think about the history. They don’t think who created it, who leads in assists, steals, blocks, points, and rebounds in the entire history of the sport. Did they know that it was illegal to dunk just because of one person, and he soon became the all-time scoring leader? Who created the name “slam dunk”? When was the first basketball game ever played? Who was on the first basketball team, and how many players were on a team?

In 1891, Dr. James Naismith, head activities director at YMCA, was given 14 days to create an activity to play in the winter. He told the people to separate into two teams of nine, based on baseball. Naismith went through indoor versions of soccer, lacrosse and football, and they all failed (with the irony being all three of those sports would eventually have indoor versions), primarily because each try caused damage, particularly to windows. Naismith set out to create a game with less violence, one that was less a contest of strength and more a contest of skill. Late at night on the final day of the two weeks he was given, he created a set of 13 rules for Basket Ball (basketball was two separate words when it was first created). When Naismith came in one day he put two peach baskets in their second floor, which was about ten feet, and a ball. He established many things still in use today, including the concept of “travelling,” “goaltending,” fouls, and even the rule that a ball must be thrown in-bounds within five seconds. (http://www.ymca.int/who-we-are/history/basketball-a-ymca-invention/)

The 13 original rules (nbahoopsonline.com/History/13rules.html) were:

1. The ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands.

2. The ball may be ...

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Workscited:

1. http://www.ymca.int/who-we-are/history/basketball-a-ymca-invention 2. http://www.nba.com/history/dreamT_moments.html 3. http://www.nba.com/draft2002/history/history_84draft.htm