INTRODUCTION Throughout human history people have always sought to challenge themselves to compete against others and to discover the limits of their capabilities Such desires can turn destructive leading to war But the ancient Greeks also recognized the good in these human traits and it was because of them that the Olympic Games featuring running races jumping contests throwing competitions and wrestling and boxing matches began more than 2,700 years ago The ancient Olympics ended in a d 393 but the Games were revived in 1896 in hopes of promoting world peace through sports Fittingly the first modern Olympics were held in Athens Greece but they moved around the world every four years after that In 2009 it was announced that the Games would be held in South America for the first time going to Rio de Janeiro Brazil in 2016 4 Every 1896 Olympian received a medal reading International Olympic Games Athens 1896
Doctor James Naismith invented the game of basketball in Springfield Massachusetts in 1891 Thirteen years later his sport was played for the first time as a demonstration at the third modern Olympics which were held in 1904 in St Louis Missouri In five contests the Buffalo New York Germans swept the field beating other American club teams from Chicago San Francisco New York and St Louis Finally in 1936 in Berlin Germany men’s basketball was included as an official Olympic sport Although the first tournament was held outdoors on courts built for tennis 21 countries entered teams with the United States coming out on top starting a trend that would continue in the decades that followed In 1976 women’s basket ball was contested at the Olympic level for the first time Although American athletes and teams long ruled the basketball courts of the Games the sport has truly become international in recent decades Players such as Oscar Schmidt of Brazil and Yao Ming of China and countries ranging from the Soviet Union to Yugoslavia to Argentina have enjoyed memorable moments of Olympic glory if not always gold medals Today Dr Naismith’s game with all its dazzling shots fanciful passing and inspiring teamwork is one of the most popular and hotly contested of all the Olympic sports INTRODUCTION 5
PLAYIN IN THE RAIN 1936 BERLIN GERMANY The 1936 Games held in Berlin marked the first time basketball was played as an official Olympic sport Twenty-one nations participated in that inaugural basketball tournament Belgium Brazil Canada Chile China Czechoslovakia Egypt Estonia France Germany Italy Japan Latvia Mexico Peru the Philippines Poland Switzerland Turkey the U S and Uruguay It was something of a revelation to many Americans that basketball was booming in countries besides the U S by 1936 But it soon became apparent that much of the world could play some serious hoops In China local amateur teams had long been entertaining crowds of more than 20,000 spectators and Latvia had won the inaugural European Championship in basketball in 1935 At the Olympics players from Japan and the Philippines garnered praise for their especially deft ball-handling and passing and teams from Canada and Mexico were playing the game with impressive skill Still the U S team was the cream of the crop in 1936 Led by two talented centers Frank Lubin and Joe Fortenberry the Americans set out for Europe by boat on a weeklong voyage that had them practicing their passing and dribbling on the ship’s deck Once the Americans got to Berlin they quickly discovered that the Germans led by dictator Adolf Hitler had put little effort into running a world-class basketball tournament Hitler apparently didn’t have much of a team said Lubin and he didn’t see fit to build a big basketball pavilion to house basketball because it wasn’t important to them at that time We played the games outdoors in rough 6 1 8 9 6 A T H E N S G R E E C E 1 9 0 0 P A R I S F R A N C E 1 9 0 4 S T L O U I S M I S S O U R I 1 9 0 8 L O N D O N E N G L A N D 1 9 1 2 S T O C K H O L M S W E D E N 1 9 2 0 A N T W E R P B E L G I U M 1 9 2 4 P A R I S F R A N C E 1 9 2 8 A M S T E R D A M N E T H E R L A N D S 1 9 3 2 L O S A N G E L E S C A L I F O R N I A 1 9 3 6 B E R L I N G E R M A N Y 1 9 4 8 L O N D O N E N G L A N D 1 9 5 2 H E L S I N K I F I N L A N D 1 9 5 6 M E L B O U R N E A U S T R A L I A 1 9 6 0 R O M E I T A L Y 1 9 6 4 T O K Y O J A P A N 1 9 6 8 M E X I C O C I T Y M E X I C O 1 9 7 2 M U N I C H W E S T G E R M A N Y 1 9 7 6 M O N T R E A L Q U E B E C 1 9 8 0 M O S C O W S O V I E T U N I O N 1 9 8 4 L O S A N G E L E S C A L I F O R N I A 1 9 8 8 S E O U L S O U T H K O R E A 1 9 9 2 B A R C E L O N A S P A I N 1 9 9 6 A T L A N T A G E O R G I A 2 0 0 0 S Y D N E Y A U S T R A L I A 2 0 0 4 A T H E N S G R E E C E 2 0 0 8 B E I J I N G C H I N A 2 0 1 2 L O N D O N E N G L A N D
PLAYIN IN THE RAIN gravel and the dust would get on our hands It was very uncomfortable playing in this situation In fact the basketball games in Berlin were played on modified tennis courts with limited room for spectators The ball the Germans provided was of abnormal shape and inferior quality and to make matters worse the gold-medal game would end up being held during a rainstorm To reach the gold-medal match the U S defeated the Philippines and Mexico Canada advanced by upending Uruguay and Poland In the finals with the court mostly underwater the competition resembled water polo more than the game of basketball It was very slippery Canadian guard Norm Dawson said of the court years later We couldn’t execute any plays When the ball hit the water it didn’t move so we simply passed the ball around The U S prevailed in the soggy conditions by staking a 15 4 lead at halftime and then holding on for a 19 8 victory over its northern neighbors Fittingly James Naismith attended the 1936 Games and personally presented gold silver and bronze medals which went to Mexico to the winning teams Most spectators had to stand while watching Olympic basketball played under open skies in 1936 7
