Canada Before long people were playing overseas in places such as Australia Great Britain and Japan By the early 1900s college basketball was being played from coast to coast in America In the 1920s professional teams in various leagues sprung up across the country Before the end of that decade a pair of successful African-American teams the Harlem Globetrotters and the New York Rens gained fame as barnstorming squads They traveled around the country to compete wherever they could find an audience The sport continued to grow in popularity leading to the formation of two professional leagues The National Basketball League began in 1937 The Basketball Association of America started its first season in 1946 In 1949 the two leagues merged to become the National Basketball Association NBA The NBA took baby steps toward success in the following decades Legendary players such as George Mikan Bill Russell and Wilt
Chamberlain dominated during the league’s early years In the late 1950s the league gave birth to one of the greatest dynasties in sports history in Russell’s Boston Celtics It also survived a challenge by an upstart rival league the American Basketball Association in the 1970s All the while the league continued to grow From 1966 to 1980 the NBA expanded from 10 to 23 teams
But it wasn’t until Larry Bird and Magic Johnson ignited a legendary rivalry in the 1980s that the NBA became a stable and profitable property The contests between Johnson’s Lakers and Bird’s Celtics became the stuff of legend Then Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls took the league to a whole new level in the 1990s
Meanwhile basketball’s popularity was spreading More and more athletes were playing the sport around the world and they started joining the NBA in greater numbers At the same time women’s basketball was taking off Following new laws in the 1970s girls had greater access to play school sports In 1997 the Women’s National Basketball Association WNBA launched as a new league to build on that growth It became the first women’s pro league to stick around A new generation of iconic players took over after 2000 including Kobe Bryant Yao Ming and LeBron James The NBA continued to expand its fan base to nearly every corner of the world Now 30 teams strong the NBA looks to the future with hardwood heroes such as Kevin Durant Russell Westbrook and Stephen Curry leading the way
