The Origin of the Game of Basketball

1397 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Research paper Gender equity in Sports

There are 5 seconds left on the clock in the last quarter, the coach calls a time out. Down by 2, the team has a chance to win the game. The whistle blows and the clock winds down, 5...The ball is passed in…4…the point guard dribbles around the key…3…the ball is passed to the shooting guard…2…the shooting guard passes it back to the point guard…1…the point guard shoots from behind the 3-point line…0. Countless fans across the globe may get thrills while watching an intense minor or professional basketball game, although, few actually know where or how this widely popular sport was created. From this paper, one will acquire information about the origin of the game of basketball, how the game has evolved over time, and basketball as a business.

“The two questions that I am most commonly asked when I am discussing basketball with persons whom I have just met are, "How did you come to think of it?" and "What changes have taken place in the game since its origin?”” (Naismith 61). The game of basketball started at a local YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts in late 1891. In the late 1870’s, men who attended college would usually find an intercollegiate sport to participate in. However, when the men graduated and moved to the cities to find jobs for themselves, they found that there was too much leisure time and began searching for athletic diversion. Men often filled their newfound leisure time with different sporting clubs and the YMCA. With so many summer and fall sports to choose from, the athletes found it astonishing that winter sports and organizations were hard to come by. In fact, the only activity clubs and the YMCA tried to interest the men with was gymnastics. Nonetheless, gymnastics could never amount to filling the gaping h...

... middle of paper ...

...ww.loc.gov/rr/business/BERA/issue3/basketball.html

2. "Billion-Dollar Knicks and Lakers Top List of NBA's Most Valuable Teams." Forbes.com, January 23, 2013.

3. Harv, C. "Basketball: its Origin and Development." Baller on a Mission. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. http://balleronamission.wordpress.com/2008/01/17/basketball-its-origin-and-development/

Association Press. "BASKETBALL: Its Origin and Development." Kirkus Reviews. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/james-naismith/basketball-its-origin-and-development-2/

4. Peterson, Robert W. (2002). Cages to Jump Shots: Pro Basketball's Early Years. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

5. Anderson, Dave. The Story of Basketball. New York: W. Morrow, 1988. Print.

6. Nelson, Murry R. The National Basketball League: A History, 1935-1949. Jefferson, NC: McFarland &, 2009. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Inside Joe DiMaggio's Life and Success

    685 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gigliotti, Jim. "A Short Storybook." Sports in America, 1950-1959. New York: Chelsea House, 2010. 42-44. Print.

    Read More

  • The 1998-99 NBA Lockout

    436 Words  | 1 Pages

    The National Basketball Association no longer holds the prominence that it once had. In the aftermath of the lockout that took away half of the 1998-99 season, the National Basketball Association finds itself looking into an uncertain future. Appearing similar to the state of the league during the mid 1980's, the NBA finds itself with a tarnished image and no icon's to build the league around. With the retirement of Michael Jordan and the number of superstars in which the league built its popularity on during the 1990's getting smaller, the National Basketball Association sits in limbo while it searches for its new identity.

    Read More

  • How To Play Basketball: The History Of Basketball

    1390 Words  | 3 Pages

    Basketball has been around for a long while. It was first established in 1891 by James Naismith. James Naismith was once the basketball coach at Kansas University. When he invented the sport he used a peach basket as the goal. When it first originated every time they would score they’d be required to call the janitor out with a ladder to get the ball down. After a few months they cut the bottoms of the basket out.

    Read More

  • Fair Play In The NBA: A Modest Proposal

    1007 Words  | 3 Pages

    It seems certain that Anglo-American males are victims of the unfair and discriminatory practices of the National Basketball Association. Further, society has by now created such obstacles to the success of Anglo-American basketball players that some sort of inte...

    Read More

  • Paying College Athletes

    1281 Words  | 3 Pages

    Davis, S.. (2011, Sep. 21). Hoop Thoughts. Sports Illustrated p 1-2. from http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/seth_davis/09/21/Branch.rebuttal/index.html. Web. 12 Mar. 2014

    Read More

  • Professionalism In Baseball And Baseball

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    Status and prowess that inherently came from playing competitive sports and recreation also came out of convenience. As sports and recreation became integral in American everyday life, there was a problem in the north. It became too cold to play baseball and football outside, but it was wasn’t possible to play these sports inside as it just resulted in injuries to players and the facilities where they attempted to play them. Therefore, basketball was invented as a game where you couldn’t run with the ball and scoring was upright in hopes to decrease the amount of violence but also provide men with recreation in the winter. Soon, basketball just like cycling, football, prize fighting and baseball became a competitive sport and turned into a business where status and prowess become the significant. There were handbooks written to guide people to play and watch basketball and prove its status as a serious sport; “physical judgment is required and cultivated in handling the ball, receiving it from one of your own side, and eluding an opponents” (Naismith 5). Basketball, just like other sports required prowess, physical fitness and understanding of the game in order to defeat the

    Read More

  • The Similarities And Differences Between Basketball And The NBA

    960 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since its creation in 1893, the sport of basketball has been one of the most popular sports in the United States. One wouldn’t have to search long to find a basketball court and a pickup game in most American cities. Many people around the world look up to the stars of the National Basketball Association as role models. Despite the vast popularity of basketball, there is only one major league in America: The National Basketball Association, to be referred to in this work as the NBA.

    Read More

  • An Essay On The History Of Basketball

    1729 Words  | 4 Pages

    Basketball originated in 1891 when future Presbyterian minister named James Naismith (1861-1939) was assigned to teach a P.E. class at Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) training school in Springfield, Massachusetts. The class had been noted for being disorderly, and Naismith was told to invent a new game to keep the young men occupied. Since it was winter and very cold outside, the game had to be played indoors was desirable. Naismith had a flashback to his childhood in Canada, where he and his friends had played "duck on a rock,”. The game involved trying to knock a large rock off a boulder by throwing smaller rocks at it. He also recalled watching rugby players toss a ball into a box in a gym. He had the idea to nail up boxes and the players would attempt to throw a ball. When he couldn't find boxes he used peach baskets. According to Alexander Wolff, in his book 100 Years of Hoops, Naismith drew up the rules for the new game in "about an hour." Most of them still apply in some form of todays. Basketball was a simple game that could be played indoors during winter. Naismith spread the rules freely, and there was a need for Naismith's legacy included the first great college basketball coach, Forrest "Phog" Allen (1885-1974), who played for Naismith at the University of Kansas and went on to win 771 games as a coa...

    Read More

  • 1930's Basketball History

    509 Words  | 2 Pages

    Basketball players were not paid all as well and did not play as hard and they looked up to legends. “Smith is Abe Lincoln in a sports world” (Reilly 2). Both Abe and Smith include blacks in their activities. “In today’s scandal-dripping land of college basketball, couldn’t we all use a little of Dean Smith” (Reilly 2). So many people only went to basketball games were that they only wanted to she the famous people that play and to get their

    Read More

  • Basketball

    657 Words  | 2 Pages

    On November 6, 1861 the great James Naismith was born in Ontario, Canada to Mr. and Mrs. John and Margaret Naismith. As a child James wasn’t very successful in school but excelled in physical activates, this triggered him to drop out of school and become a lumberjack. Soon after this he realized that he needed to turn his life around, so he went back to school to receive a degree in physical education. He later earned a job at a local YMCA in Springfield and was immediately put in task of finding a way to keep men in shape during the winter seasons. After many unsuccessful attempts he finally decided on a sport in which the players must throw a soccer ball into a peach basket on either side of the gymnasium. So on December 21, 1891 the newly formed game known as basketball had its first official game, the final score 1-0. As time passed different basketball leagues were formed the Basketball Association of America was founded in 1946 by owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Canada. In 1949 the BAA joined another basketball league, the NBL, to create the currant league, the NBA. The NBA was a great success with many people. This success would led it to what it is today, a multi-billion dollar association known for consisting in a wide variety of elite athletes.

    Read More

  • Basketball As A Discourse Community In High School Basketball

    1288 Words  | 3 Pages

    Basketball is defined as a game where two teams of five play each on a rectangular court, usually indoors (Basketball/Sport). Basketball was invented by James Naismith on December 1, 1891 (Basketball/Sport). The object of basketball is to shoot the basketball through the opposing team’s basket and to out-score them by end of the regulation time limit. If the score is tied at this time, the game will go into overtime until one team wins. While reading about basketball, I found it interesting that when the sport was invented they would nail baskets to balconies with no backboards. This made it easy for spectators (in the balcony) to help their team by either swatting the

    Read More

  • The Historiography of Race and Discrimination in Baseball and Sports

    3242 Words  | 7 Pages

    Wiggins, David Kenneth, and Patrick B. Miller. 2003. The unlevel playing field: a documentary history of the African American experience in sport. Urbana: University of Illinois Press

    Read More

  • Don Haskins

    636 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...by the Texas Western Men’s Basketball Team of 1966 in emotional abuse, curfew, and stereotypes. The African-American players on the team elicited much harassment and racism. The emotional abuse that the team received threatened to break the team, but the team responded by triumph in the 1966 NCAA Division I National Championship. Then, the concept of curfew was not an important one within the Texas Western Basketball players’ priorities in the beginning of the season. The distraction of partying and girlfriends kept the men up all night and led to them being punished by their coach. In recruiting, Coach Don Haskins overlooked the stereotypes surrounding African-American basketball players and started the first all-black national championship team. This inspirational story is one that explains the reason for the racial equality in the sport of basketball today.

    Read More

  • The History of Volleyball: William G. Morgan

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Web. Menke, Frank G. The Encyclopedia of Sports. South Brunswick and New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1987. Print.

    Read More

  • Sports: The Ultimate Stress Reliever

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    Oliver, Dean. Basketball on Paper: Rules and Tools for Performance Analysis. 1st ed. Washington D.C.: Potamac, 1969. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.

    Read More

More about The Origin of the Game of Basketball

Open Document