Growing Up Big Bucks Hair-Raising Superstars For the Record Books Players For the Record Books Teams Play-off Pandemonium Offense vs Defense The Numbers The College Game Wheelchair Wonders The Science of Sport Underhanded Shots A Night Out Money In Money Out Who’s Watching A Different Kind of Cap Different at the Top The Original 13 Rules Trivia Time The Answers References and Further Reading Index About Kevin Sylvester 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92
Introduction You may have heard baseball and football referred to as America’s pastimes but that title really belongs to basketball Unlike a lot of other sports which grew out of field games such as rugby or cricket basketball is a wholly North American invention created without any previous rules to build on In December 1891 teacher James Naismith looked out the window of his school in Springfield Massachusetts and saw snow snow and more snow Outdoor sports the normal recreation for his students were out But Naismith a Canadian who knew how to deal with being cooped up inside during many a blizzard had a sudden inspiration He nailed some peach baskets to the walls of the gym called the stir-crazy young men in and tossed them an old soccer ball The goal was simple he said throw the ball in the other team’s basket There were only 13 rules and he made them up Check out pages 82 and 83 for the list The boys loved it And they spread the word quickly The game exploded Women’s schools picked up the new sport just a few months later Then the game went global Naismith published the rules in the newsletter for the YMCA Young Men’s Christian Association which had communities across the world Within a year players were tossing balls into baskets in Canada and France Soon after that the game spread to Japan China India and beyond The genius of basketball is its simplicity But science math and creative thinking have taken the basic game and transformed the way players think about what they do Players have grown in size So have salaries and attendance The rules have been adapted over time to keep the game moving and the fans entertained And a split second can mean the difference between getting a swish basket and getting your shot whacked back into your face Simple No way Cool You bet Read on and see just how amazing North America’s true pastime really is
Peach Baskets and Blizzards James Naismith didn’t know he was creating a global game when he called those stir-crazy boys into the gym in 1891 He just wanted to keep his students active Naismith nailed peach baskets into the balcony that ran around the top level of the gym Those baskets were 10 feet 3 04 meters from the floor and that’s remained the official height ever since The first game was in Naismith’s own words a bit of a free for-all Before I could pull them apart one boy was knocked out several of them had black eyes and one had a dislocated shoulder It certainly was murder James Naismith 6
It was so difficult for the players to move that the winning team made only one basket a 25-foot 7 62-meter shot by a guy named William Chase So Naismith drew up some rules to stop the roughhousing and get things moving No more holding No more tackling Scoring increased Injuries decreased The game grew HURRY AND WAIT Originally when someone scored a basket the game stopped at least till the janitor could get a ladder to retrieve the ball Naismith finally figured out if they cut the bottom out of the basket the ball could go through and the game could resume quickly Eureka The first metal basket was manufactured in the late 1890s The netting was added to help officials see when a ball had actually gone through the hoop That swish sound basketball players love to hear happens when a spinning ball is slowed down by the netting 7 The backboard appeared in 1895 to stop spectators from reaching for the ball They were originally made of wood today they are made of Plexiglas
