Basketball History The Game Playing Regulations Playing The Ball

Basketball is highly suited to viewing by spectators, as it is primarily an indoor sport, played in a relatively small playing area, or "court," with only ten players, and using a large ball which is easy to follow. Additionally, the lack of protective gear makes it easy to see the reactions of the players. It is one of the most popular sports in the United States, and is also popular in other parts of the world, including South America, southern Europe, and the former Soviet Union, especially Lithuania.

1 History

Basketball is unusual in that it is a sport that was invented essentially by one man. In 1891, Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian minister on the faculty of a college for YMCA professionals in Springfield, Massachusetts, sought an indoor game of vigor and grace to keep young men occupied during the long New England winters. Legend has it that after rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote up some basic rules, nailed up a peach basket on the gym wall, and got his students to start playing his new game. The first official game was played there on January 20, 1892. "Basket ball", the name suggested by one of his students, was popular from the beginning and, with its early adherents being dispatched to YMCAs thorougout the United States, was soon being played all over the country.

Interestingly, while the YMCAs were responsible for developing and initially spreading the game, within a decade they were discouraging the new sport, as rough play and rowdy crowds seemed to detract from what they saw as their primary mission. Other amateur sports clubs, colleges, and eventually professional clubs quickly filled the void. In the years before World War One, the Amateur Athletic UnionThe Amateur Athletic Union widely known as the AAU was formed in 1888 to help support many different teams and players in almost every sport, and has sponsored many tournaments throughout the United States. It helps to get players noticed and direct them and the Intercollegiate Athletic Association (forerunner of the NCAA) vied for control over the rules of the game.

Naismith himself was instrumental in establishing the college game, coaching at University of KansasThe University of Kansas (often referred to as KU is an institution of higher learning located in Lawrence, Kansas. The University was founded in 1864. It had a fall 2003 enrollment of 29,272. The University's School of Medicine is located in Kansas City, for six years before handing the reins there to renowned coach Phog Allen . Naismith disciple Amos Alonzo StaggAmos Alonzo Stagg ( August 16, 1862 March 17, 1965), was a renowned American collegiate football coach and an overall football pioneer. Known as the "grand old man" of college football, Stagg was born in New Jersey. Stagg High School in Palos Hills, Illin brought basketball to the University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a university located in Chicago, Illinois. Just over a century old, it includes departments and committees of: Physics, Economics, Music (theory), Sociology, Linguistics, Political Science, Social Thought, International Relati, while Adolph Rupp , a student of Naismith at Kansas, enjoyed great success as coach at the University of KentuckyThe University of Kentucky (mascot: the Wildcat) is Kentucky's largest university, with over 32,000 students. Located in Lexington the state-supported school was founded in 1865. UK has 98 bachelor degree programs for undergraduates, 96 master's degree pr. College leagues date back to the 1920s, and the first national championship tournament, the National Invitation TournamentThe National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is a college basketball tournament played each spring, with its final rounds in New York City. The tournament pre-dates the NCAA tournament. There are separate men's and women's tournaments. They also conduct a " P in New York, followed in 1938. College basketball was rocked by gambling scandals from 1948-1951, when dozens of players from top teams were implicated in game fixing and point-shaving. Partly spurred by the association of New York, the site of the "N.I.T.", with many of the fixers, the NCAA national tournament eventually surpassed the N.I.T. in importance. Today it is rivaled only by the baseballBusch Stadium in Saint Louis, Missouri. Baseball is a team sport in which a small hand-sized ball is thrown and hit with a bat. Scoring involves running and touching markers on the ground called bases, hence the name. The ball itself is also called a base World Series and the Super Bowl of American football in the American sports psyche.

In the 1920s there were hundreds of professional basketball teams in towns and cities all over the United States. There was little organization to the professional game. Players jumped from team to team, and teams played in armories and smoky dance halls. Leagues came and went, and barnstorming squads such as the New York Rens and the Original Celtics played up to two hundred games a year on their national tours. In 1946, the National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed, organising the top professional teams and leading to greater popularity of the professional game. An upstart organization, the American Basketball Association, emerged in 1967 and briefly threatened the N.B.A.'s dominance until the rival leagues merged in 1975.

Basketball was first included in the Olympic Games in 1936, although a demonstration tournament was held back in 1904. This competition has been mostly dominated by the United States, whose team has won all but three titles. The Americans' first Olympic loss was in a controversial final game in Munich in 1972 against the Soviet Union. When the United States began to allow its professional players to compete, starting with the "Dream Team" of 1992, their dominance briefly resurfaced. However with the developing programs elswhere, other national teams are now very competitive with the United States. A team made up of NBA players was badly beaten in the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis, finishing sixth, behind Yugoslavia, Argentina, Germany, New Zealand, and Spain. In 2004 the Olympic gold medal was won by Argentina and the silver by Italy; the United States took the bronze.

Women's basketball was added to the Olympics in 1976, with teams such as Brazil and Australia rivaling the American squads. Women's professional basketball has also emerged, with the N.B.A.-backed Women's National Basketball Association beginning play in 1997.

World-wide, basketball tournaments are held at many age levels, such as five to six year olds (usually called biddy-biddy), seven to eight year olds, nine to ten year olds, eleven to thirteen year olds (biddy), teenagers, jr. high-schoolers, high school, college, the professional leagues and master leagues. Tournaments are held at each level for both males and females.

2 The game

The object of the game is to outscore their opponents by throwing the ball through their opponents' basket from above while preventing their opponents from doing so on their own. An attempt to score in this way is called a shot. Two points are scored for a successful shot, three points for a successful long-range shot (6.25 metres from the basket), and one point for each successful free throw.

2.1 Playing regulations

At the professional level, games are played in four quarters of 10 (international) or 12 minutes (NBA) each. Games take longer than this allotted game time, since the game clock only runs when the ball is in play. This is called using a stop clock, as the clock stops when the ball is not in play, e.g. it goes out of bounds or a foul is committed. Fifteen minutes are allowed at half-time, and two minutes are allowed at other intervals.

Time-outs and substitutions are permitted during a game. A substitution is that of one player on the court for another on the team bench. A time-out is a clock stoppage requested by the coach of either team, in which he can discuss tactics etc. A time-out lasts one minute in international basketball and either 100 seconds, 60 seconds or 20 seconds in NBA basketball. A limited amound of time-outs is allowed. (In international basketball, 2 time-outs are allowed in the first two periods, 3 in the last two periods, and 1 in each extra period. In NBA basketball, six 100/60-second time-outs are allowed in the entire game of which a maximum of three can be in the last quarter, and 3 100/60-second time-outs in each extra period, as well as one 20-second time-out per half.)

2.2 Playing the ball

The ball may be advanced toward the basket by being shot, passed, thrown, tapped, rolled or dribbled. Passing is throwing the ball from player to player. Dribbling is when a single player runs while continuously bouncing the ball. The ball cannot be kicked deliberately or struck with the fist, and must stay within the playing court.

Running with the ball without bouncing it, or travelling is illegal, as is double dribbling, the act of dribbling with two hands or starting a second dribble after having caught the ball after a first one. In higher levels of basketball time limits are imposed on taking the ball over halfway, and taking a shot. Rules with playing the ball are stricter in the NBA. Contrary to popular belief, there is no limit to the amount of steps a player can take between bounces while dribbling.

To interfere with the ball while on its downward flight for a basket, or while it is bouncing on the basket, is called goal tending and is a violation.

2.3 Fouls

An attempt to unfairly disadvantage an opponent with personal contact is illegal and is called a foul. These are most commonly commited by defensive players, however they can be committed by offensive players as well. Normal fouls are called personal fouls. Players who are fouled either receive the ball to pass inbounds again, or receive a free throw if they are fouled in the act of shooting. One point is awarded for making a free throw, which is attempted from a line 4.5 metres (15 feet) from the basket.

If a team surpasses a preset limit of team fouls in a given period (4 in international and NBA games), the opposing team is awarded free throws on all subsequent fouls for that period.

A player or coach who shows poor sportsmanship such as arguing with a referee or fighting with another player can be charged with a technical foul. A player or coach with two technical fouls is disqualified from the game and is required to leave the stadium. Blatant fouls with excessive contact or that are not an attempt to play the ball are called unsportsmanlike foul s (or flagrant fouls in the NBA) and incur a harsher penalty; in some rare cases a disqualifying foul will require the player to leave the stadium.

If a player commits five fouls (including technical fouls) in one game (six in some professional leagues, including the NBA) he is not allowed to participate for the rest of the game, and is described as fouled out. If no substitutions are available, and the team has only four players, they must forfeit the game.

2.4 Players and positions

During the first five decades of basketball's evolution, a player occupied one of three positions, as follows: two guards, two forwards, and one center. Since the 1980s, more specific positions have evolved, as follows:

On some occasions teams will choose to use a three guard offense, replacing one of the forwards or the center with a third guard.

Any number of player substitutions are allowed during the game, although substitutions can only enter a game during a stoppage of play.

Male players generally wear shorts and a sleeveless top, and high-top sneakers that provide extra ankle support. Female players have worn shirts and skirts in the past, but most female players now wear uniforms identical to those worn by men.

Being tall is a clear advantage in basketball. Very few male professional players stand less than six feet (1.83 m); few women in professional leagues are shorter than 5'6" (1.68 m). In men's professional leagues, guards tend to be the smallest players, though they can occasionally be taller, such as Magic Johnson (6'9"/2.06 m) and Toni Kukoc (6'11"/2.11 m). Forwards in the men's professional leagues are almost all 6'6" (1.98 m) or taller; the smallest centers are about 6'9" (2.06 m). Many centers, and a few forwards, are over 7 feet (2.13 m). The tallest players ever in the NBA, Manute Bol and Gheorghe Muresan, are 7'7" (2.31 m). Currently, the tallest NBA players are Shawn Bradley and Yao Ming, both listed at 7'6" (2.29 m).

2.5 Officials

A referee and one or two umpires control the game, these are the officials. On the scorebench, there are table officials, responsible for the adminstration of the game. The table officials include the scorer, who keeps track of the score and fouls by each player, the assistant scorer who controls the scoreboard, the timekeeper and the 24-second operator, who controls the 24-second clock.

Referees and umpires generally wear a grey shirt and black trousers. These officials call fouls, award successful baskets, and so on.

3 Variations and similar games

There are some variations of basketball, played often when there is not the equipment to play a full game. In informal street (also known as pickup) games, an arbitrary number of points by one team is set as the game's end point. Free throws are not used, and fouls are called, by the fouled player, only when a violation is flagrant or prevents a score. In halfcourt games, only one basket is used, with the requirement that the ball be "cleared", or passed back behind the halfcourt line (or sometimes the three-point line), whenever possession of the ball changes. A "make-it-take-it" convention is followed in some regions, whereby the scoring team retains possession of the ball. Because free throws are not generally used, baskets made in pick-up games generally count as one point. However, some courts have begun to add the three-point goal to their pick-up scenario, with two points for other field goals, resulting in a higher designated end point for the game.

Spin-offs from basketball may include baseketball, which has some elements of baseball, korfball, which was born in Holland and is played by mixed-sex teams, netball, which was informally called "women's basketball" but now includes men's teams, slamball, ringball , and streetball, which used to be called street basketball and now is a portmanteau of street and basketball.

4 Further reading

The Meaning of Sports by Michael Mandelbaum (Public Affairs, BooksEnthsiast.com).

5 See also

International Basketball Federation
"Illustrated History of Basketball", by Larry Fox
Lists of NBA Players and WNBA Players
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
Basketball Hall of Fame
triangle offense
List of defunct sports leagues
Violence in sports

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