ALTERNATOR BOOKS BASKETBALL SUPER STATS JEFF SAVAGE Lerner Publications Minneapolis
INTRODUCTION PEACH BASKETS In December 21 1891 a physical education teacher in Springfield Massachusetts named James Naismith showed his class a game he had just invented Naismith nailed a peach basket to the balcony at each end of the gym and divided his class into two teams of nine players each The object of the game was to throw a ball into one of the fruit baskets The players used a soccer ball and the game lasted 30 minutes William R Chase scored the game's JAMES NAISMITH first and only basket Chase's basket was the first statistic ever recorded in a basketball game Fans use statistics or stats to measure and compare the performances of players and teams Stats can show everything from how good a player is at shooting free throws to what kinds of shots are most likely to help a team beat an opponent What are basketball's most important statistics First you should know how the rules of the game have changed over time These changes have affected how stats are recorded and how fans respond to the game O
STATS FACT The first pro game was played in 1896 when the Trenton YMCA defeated the Brooklyn YMCA 15 1 All players were paid 15 except Fred Cooper who received 16 A SLOWER GAME Early basketball games often had low scores The games moved more slowly than modern National Basketball Association NBA games The peach baskets had bottoms so each time a shot went in someone had to climb a ladder to get the ball Baskets with an open bottom were not used until 1912 Before 1954 NBA games didn't use a shot clock Teams would often stop shooting once they took the lead so that the other team would have fewer chances to score But in 1954 the league began to use a 24 second shot clock This forced teams to shoot more often and score more points A year later the Boston Celtics became the first team to average 100 points per game for a season Four years after that every team in the league averaged more than 100 KOSTO 1955 BOSTON CELTICS
