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How is the game of basketball started
How is the game of basketball started
Here's the history of basketball—from peach baskets in Springfield to global phenomenon
James Naismith, a Canadian American physical educator and innovator, invented the game of basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891 to keep his students active during the winter. The game was an immediate success and the original American sport spread instantly to other colleges and YMCAs. Naismith is pictured here with his wife Maude Evelyn Sherman Naismith.
Photograph via Agefotostock / Alamy Stock Photo
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The nets used by athletes to dunk the ball and score points in the beloved game of basketball evolved from peaches, or rather the baskets used to collect peaches.
That’s what a young athletic director ultimately used on a cold day back in 1891 for a new game he created to keep his students engaged.
James Naismith was a 31-year old graduate student teaching physical education at the International YMCA Training School, now known as Springfield College, in Springfield, Massachusetts when students were forced to stay indoors for days due to a New England storm.![]()
The usual winter athletic activities were marching, calisthenics, and apparatus work but they weren’t nearly as thrilling as football or lacrosse which were played during the warmer seasons.
James Naismith, the creator of basketball, stands with the 1899 University of Kansas basketball team.
Photography via Florida Historical 1A / Alamy Stock Photo
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Naismith wanted to create a game that would be simple to understand but complex enough to be interesting. The game had to be playable indoors, and it had to accommodate several players at once. The game also needed to provide plenty of exercise for the students, yet without the physicality of football, soccer, or rugby since those would threaten more severe injuries if played in a confined space. (See 100 years of football in pictures.)
Naismith approached the school janitor, hoping he could find two square boxes to use for goals.
When the janitor came back from his search, he had two peach baskets instead. Naismith nailed the peach baskets to the lower rail of the gymnasium balcony, one on each side. The height of that lower balcony rail happened to be 10 feet. The students would play on teams to try to get the ball into their team’s basket. A person was stationed at each end of the balcony to retrieve the ball from the basket and put it back into play.
The first game ever played between students was a complete brawl.
Two boys stand on the first basketball court in the gymnasium of the School for Christian Workers, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1900s.
Photograph via. Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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“The boys began tackling, kicking and punching in the crunches, they ended up in a free for all in the middle of the gym floor before I could pull them apart,” Naismith said during a January 1939 radio program on WOR in New York City called We the People, his only known recording.
“One boy was knocked out. Several of them had black eyes and one had a dislocated shoulder.” Naismith said. “After that first match, I was afraid they'd kill each other, but they kept nagging me to let them play again so I made up some more rules.”
The humble beginnings of the only professional sport to originate in the United States laid the foundation for today’s multi-billion-dollar business. The current National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) March Madness college basketball tournament includes the best 68 of more than 1,000 college teams, stadiums that seat tens of thousands of spectators and lucrative television contracts.
Details of the original 1891 copy of the rules of "Basket Ball" are presented at Sotheby's auction house December 3, 2010 in New York City. The two-page document sold for $4.3 million.
Photograph by Chris Hondros, Getty Images
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Original rules of the game
Naismith didn’t create all of the rules at once, but continued to modify them into what are now known as the original 13 rules.
Some are still part of the modern game today. Naismith’s original rules of the game sold at auction in 2010 for $4.3 million.
In the original rules: The ball could be thrown in any direction with one or both hands, never a fist. A player could not run with the ball but had to throw it from the spot where it was caught. Players were not allowed to push, trip or strike their opponents. The first infringement was considered a foul. A second foul would disqualify a player until the next goal was made. But if there was evidence that a player intended to injure an opponent, the player would be disqualified for the whole game.
Umpires served as judges for the game, made note of fouls and had the power to disqualify players. They decided when the ball was in bounds, to which side it belonged, and managed the time. Umpires decided when a goal had been made and kept track of the goals.
If a team made three consecutive fouls, the opposing team would be allowed a goal.
A goal was made when the ball was thrown or batted from the grounds into the basket and stayed there.
If the ball rested on the edges, and the opponent moved the basket, it would count as a goal. When the ball went out of bounds, it was thrown into the field of play by the person first touching it. The person throwing the ball was allowed five seconds; if he held it longer, the ball would go to the opponent. In case of a dispute, an umpire would throw the ball straight into the field. If any side persisted in delaying the game, the umpire would call a foul on that side.
The length of a game was two 15-minute halves, with five minutes' rest between. The team making the most goals within the allotted time was declared the winner. If a game was tied, it could be continued until another goal was made.
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Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
Left: University of Kansas women's basketball team members Marcella Morewitz, left, and Grace Endicott get expert coaching from Dr.
James Naismith, a member of the university's faculty and inventor of basketball, in 1926.
Photograph by George Rinhart, Corbis/Getty Images
Right: Olivia Nelson-Ododa (#20) of the University of Connecticut Huskies goes up for a basket against Digna Strautmane (#45) of the Syracuse Orange during the second round of the 2021 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at the Alamodome on March 23, 2021 in San Antonio, Texas. UCONN won the game and advanced to the Sweet 16. The Huskies have won more NCAA championships than any other women's basketball team in the nation. They cut down the nets, an honor for the winning team, in 1995, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.
Photograph by Carmen Mandato, Getty Images
First public gamesThe first public game of basketball was played in a YMCA gymnasium and was recorded by the Springfield Republican on March 12th, 1892.
The instructors played against the students. Around 200 spectators attended to discover this new sport they had never heard of or seen before. In the story published by the Republican, the teachers were credited with “agility” but the student’s “science” is what led them to defeat the teachers 5-1.
Within weeks the sport’s popularity grew rapidly. Students attending other schools introduced the game at their own YMCAs. The original rules were printed in a college magazine, which was mailed to YMCAs across the country. With the colleges’ well-represented international student body the sport also was introduced to many foreign nations. High schools began to introduce the new game, and by 1905, basketball was officially recognized as a permanent winter sport.
The first intercollegiate basketball game between two schools is disputed, according to the NCAA. In 1893, two school newspaper articles were published chronicling separate recordings of collegiate basketball games facing an opposing college team.
In 1892, less than a year after Naismith created the sport, Smith College gymnastics instructor Senda Berenson, introduced the game to women’s athletics. The first recorded intercollegiate game between women took place between Stanford University and University of California at Berkeley in 1896.
With the sport’s growth in popularity, it gained notice from the International Olympic Committee and was introduced at the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis as a demonstration event. It wasn’t until 1936 that basketball was recognized as a medal event. Women’s basketball wasn’t included as an Olympic medal event until the 1976 Montreal games. (Wheelchair basketball in Cambodia changed these women's lives.)
Jim Baechtold (10) of the New York Knickerbockers and Bob Brannum (18) of the Boston Celtics try to get a rebound in the first quarter of a March 16, 1954 NBA playoff game at the Boston Garden. Others in the picture are Celtics Chuck Cooper (11) center, and Bob Cousy (14) left.
In 1950, Cooper was the first Black basketball player drafted by an NBA team.
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As the sport continued its rapid spread, professional leagues began to form across the United States. Basketball fans cheered on their new hometown teams. The first professional league was the National Basketball League (NBL) formed in 1898, comprised of six teams in the northeast. The league only lasted about five years. After it dissolved in 1904, the league would be reintroduced 33 years later in 1937 with an entirely new support system, with Goodyear, Firestone, and General Electric corporations as the league owners, and 13 teams.
While professional sports leagues gained nationwide attention, college basketball was also a major fixture. The first NCAA tournament, which included eight teams, was held in 1939 at Northwestern University. The first collegiate basketball national champion was the University of Oregon. The team defeated Ohio State University.
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
Left: Villagers watch a basketball game at Yangping Village in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, China on July 12, 2020.
Photograph by Shi Yunping, VCG / Getty Images
Right: Oklahoma City Thunder player Steven Adams (12) rebounds in a game against the Portland Trail Blazers at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on April 21, 2019.
Photograph by Greg Nelson, Sports Illustrated / Getty Images
Like most of the United States in the early to mid 1900s, basketball was segregated. The sport wouldn’t be integrated until 1950 when Chuck Cooper was drafted by the Boston Celtics. Prior to Cooper being drafted there were groups of black teams across the country, commonly known as “the black fives”, which referred to the five starting players on a basketball team.
All-black teams were often referred to as colored quints or Negro cagers. The teams flourished in New York City, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Chicago, and in other cities with substantial African American populations. They were amateur, semi-professional, and professional.
Of the more than 1,000 collegiate basketball teams across all divisions of the NCAA, 68 teams play in the annual March Madness tournament. The best college teams from each conference around the country compete for a place in the Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four and, ultimately, the national championship. Though basketball might not be played the same way as it was when Naismith invented it—peach baskets have been replaced with nets, metal hoops and plexiglass blackboards—its evolution proves that the game has transcended a century.
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Where Basketball was Invented: The History of Basketball
Where Basketball Originated
It was the winter of 1891-1892. Inside a gymnasium at Springfield College (then known as the International YMCA Training School), located in Springfield, Mass.
, was a group of restless college students. The young men had to be there; they were required to participate in indoor activities to burn off the energy that had been building up since their football season ended. The gymnasium class offered them activities such as marching, calisthenics, and apparatus work, but these were pale substitutes for the more exciting games of football and lacrosse they played in warmer seasons.
James Naismith, The Person Who Invented Basketball
The instructor of this class was James Naismith, a 31-year-old graduate student. After graduating from Presbyterian College in Montreal with a theology degree, Naismith embraced his love of athletics and headed to Springfield to study physical education—at that time, a relatively new and unknown academic discipline—under Luther Halsey Gulick, superintendent of physical education at the College and today renowned as the father of physical education and recreation in the United States.
As Naismith, a second-year graduate student who had been named to the teaching faculty, looked at his class, his mind flashed to the summer session of 1891, when Gulick introduced a new course in the psychology of play.
In class discussions, Gulick had stressed the need for a new indoor game, one “that would be interesting, easy to learn, and easy to play in the winter and by artificial light.” No one in the class had followed up on Gulick’s challenge to invent such a game. But now, faced with the end of the fall sports season and students dreading the mandatory and dull required gymnasium work, Naismith had a new motivation.
Two instructors had already tried and failed to devise activities that would interest the young men. The faculty had met to discuss what was becoming a persistent problem with the class’s unbridled energy and disinterest in required work.
During the meeting, Naismith later wrote that he had expressed his opinion that “the trouble is not with the men, but with the system that we are using.” He felt that the kind of work needed to motivate and inspire the young men he faced “should be of a recreative nature, something that would appeal to their play instincts.”
Before the end of the faculty meeting, Gulick placed the problem squarely in Naismith’s lap.
“Naismith,” he said. “I want you to take that class and see what you can do with it.”
So Naismith went to work. His charge was to create a game that was easy to assimilate, yet complex enough to be interesting. It had to be playable indoors or on any kind of ground, and by a large number of players all at once. It should provide plenty of exercise, yet without the roughness of football, soccer, or rugby since those would threaten bruises and broken bones if played in a confined space.
Much time and thought went into this new creation. It became an adaptation of many games of its time, including American rugby (passing), English rugby (the jump ball), lacrosse (use of a goal), soccer (the shape and size of the ball), and something called duck on a rock, a game Naismith had played with his childhood friends in Bennie’s Corners, Ontario. Duck on a rock used a ball and a goal that could not be rushed. The goal could not be slammed through, thus necessitating “a goal with a horizontal opening high enough so that the ball would have to be tossed into it, rather than being thrown.
”
Naismith approached the school janitor, hoping he could find two, 18-inch square boxes to use as goals. The janitor came back with two peach baskets instead. Naismith then nailed them to the lower rail of the gymnasium balcony, one at each end. The height of that lower balcony rail happened to be ten feet. A man was stationed at each end of the balcony to pick the ball from the basket and put it back into play. It wasn’t until a few years later that the bottoms of those peach baskets were cut to let the ball fall loose.
Naismith then drew up the 13 original rules, which described, among other facets, the method of moving the ball and what constituted a foul. A referee was appointed. The game would be divided into two, 15-minute halves with a five-minute resting period in between. Naismith’s secretary typed up the rules and tacked them on the bulletin board. A short time later, the gym class met, and the teams were chosen with three centers, three forwards, and three guards per side.
Two of the centers met at mid-court, Naismith tossed the ball, and the game of “basket ball” was born.
Basketball Rules
Basketball
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Historical development
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Rules
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Material support
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Judging
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Technique
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Tactics
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Education and training
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Choosing a basketball
Basketball: team and substitutes.
Each team consists of 5 main players and 5-7 (in major tournaments) permanent substitutes, who can enter the game only after the game has stopped and the referee whistles.
If the team in possession is entitled to a substitution at every stoppage of play, the team not in possession of the ball is only entitled to a substitution in the event of a bounce and time-out or when the team in possession makes a substitution.
Basketball: game time.
In all classes, basketball matches last 2 halves of 20 minutes of pure time. The break between halves is 10 minutes. If at the end of the match the teams scored the same number of points, then extra time (5 minutes) is given to determine the winner.
Basketball: time out.
Each team is entitled to 2 time-outs in each half and 1 time-out in extra time. Coaches usually use the timeout to give players tactical instructions and make substitutions.
Basketball: the beginning of the game.
The game begins with the referee throwing the ball up in the center of the court between 2 players, each of whom tries to return the ball to his team. The rest of the team players are outside the center circle or in the front zone.
Basketball: movement rules.
According to this rule, the player who receives the ball is allowed to take only 2 steps (more precisely, 2 contacts with the floor). Touching the floor while receiving the ball (also catching the ball on the spot) counts as 1st contact. Jumping from a place with the ball in hand is a violation of the movement rule. Especially often this rule is violated during runs, at the beginning and at the end of dribbling.
Basketball: dribbling.
At some point, an athlete can only dribble once. As soon as the athlete touches the ball with both hands or takes it with one or the other hand, the dribbling ends. If the athlete again continues to dribble, then this is considered a violation of the rules (double-dribbling).
The ball is passed to the opposing team who put it in play from behind the touchline.
Basketball: stop ball.
A stopping ball is such a game situation in which 1 or 2 players of each team touch the ball and the ball is taken out of the game. In this case, the game continues with a controversial face-off.
Basketball: ball out of play.
If the ball or the ball carrier touches the boundary lines of the court or the floor, an object or a person is off the court, the referee gives the order “offside”.
If the offside is difficult to determine, i.e. if both touch judges have different opinions or if the referees are unable to determine which team caused the offside, the game continues with a controversial face-off.
Basketball: Throw-in.
After the game has been stopped in case of offside or technical errors (violation of the movement rule, double-dribbling, violation of the 3 sec rule, etc.), the ball is put into play by a throw-in from the touchline.
In case of a successful throw into the basket, a throw-in occurs from behind the end line.
Basketball: estimates.
Throwing the ball into the basket is counted if the ball falls through the ring and the net from top to bottom. For each successful shot made during the game, a shot from an average or close distance (closer than the three-point line), the team receives 2 points. For a successful shot from behind the three-point line (from a distance of more than 6 meters 75 cm (7.24 m in the NBA)), the team receives 3 points, for each successful free throw - 1 point.
Basketball: foul rule.
One of the most important rules of basketball is the foul rule (translated from English - "mistake"). There are personal and technical fouls.
Personal fouls include any intentional touching of an opponent (holding, pushing, hitting, blocking with hands and feet, etc.). In such cases, the ball is passed to the opponent for a throw-in.
After the 11th foul in a half period, a foul on an opponent's missed shot is punishable by 2 free throws.
In addition, all personal comments are recorded in the athlete's personal card. If at the same time 2 players of the team receive a warning, then the opponent is entitled to 2 free throws. In most cases, the free throw is taken by the player against whom the rules were violated.
Players receive a mutual warning in case of simultaneous violation of the rules in relation to each other. In this case, a controversial throw-in occurs. Each player who has received 5 personal or technical remarks must leave the court. In case of gross and intentional violations of the rules, the athlete may be disqualified. But in both cases, the team has the right to change. From 1976 fouls of the attackers when throwing the basket are especially severely penalized. If the ball misses the basket due to a foul, the attacker is entitled to 2 free throws. If the ball misses the basket on the 1st or 2nd free throw, the attacker is entitled to 1 more free throw (3 in total).
If, despite the foul, the player shoots the ball into the basket, then this shot is counted and the player receives an additional 1 free throw.
A technical foul is called for unsportsmanlike conduct by a player and is punishable by 2 free throws by any player on the opposing team.
A player who receives 5 personal and/or technical fouls (or 6 fouls in the NBA) or 2 unsportsmanlike fouls in a match must leave the playing court and may not take part in the match (but is allowed to remain on the bench). A player who receives 2 technical warnings or a disqualifying foul is ejected from the pitch and must leave the match venue (the player is not allowed to remain on the bench).
Basketball: the rules of the time.
Some of the rules of time are extremely important. 24 seconds after the throw-in, the attack must be completed with a throw into the opponent's basket (24 second rule). The 3 second rule states that an attacker cannot be in the opponent's free throw area for more than 3 seconds.
For the throw-in and for the implementation of the free throw, the player is given 5 seconds. If the time rules are violated, the ball is given to the opponent for a throw-in.
The 8 second rule implies that the attacking team must, after a throw-in taken in its own half of the pitch, not more than 8 seconds later bring the ball to the opponent's half, after which the attacking team may not return the ball to their own half.
Basketball
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Historical development
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Rules
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Material support
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Judging
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Technique
-
Tactics
-
Education and training
-
Choosing a basketball
Basketball Rules
How the rules have changed in your favorite game
How the rules have changed in your favorite game
WE ALL LOVE TO PLAY BASKETBALL, BUT DO YOU KNOW THE RULES FOR EXACT?
Basketball was invented by James Naismith in 1891. Everything was different back then: playgrounds, baskets, balls…
!!! Read about the evolution of balls in the article:
Basketball was invented by James Naismith in 1891. Everything was different back then: playgrounds, baskets, balls…
!!! Read about the evolution of balls in the article:
The history of basketballs
The history of basketballs
What balls are played now and how it happened
Beginning
The rules have also changed a lot during this time.
Initially, there were only 13 of them in basketball:
- The ball can be thrown in any direction with one or two hands.
- The ball may be hit with one or both hands in any direction, but never with the fist.
- The player cannot run with the ball. The player must throw the ball from the point at which he caught it, except for a player running at high speed.
- The ball must be held with the hands. You can not use the forearms and body to hold the ball.
- In any case, hitting, grabbing, holding and pushing the opponent is not allowed. The first violation of this rule by any player shall be called a foul; the second foul disqualifies him until the next ball is scored, and if there was an obvious intention to injure the player, then a disqualification for the whole game. It is not allowed to replace a disqualified player.
- Punching the ball is a violation of points 2 and 4, the penalty is described in point 5. commit no foul).
- A point is scored if a ball thrown or bouncing off the floor hits the basket and stays there. Defending players are not allowed to touch the ball or basket while shooting. If the ball touches the edge and the opponents move the basket, then a point is scored.
- If the ball goes out of bounds, it must be dropped into the field by the first player to touch it. In the event of a dispute, the referee must throw the ball into the field. The thrower is allowed to hold the ball for five seconds. If he holds it longer, then the ball is given to the opponent. If either side tries to play for time, the referee must give them a foul.
- The referee must monitor the actions of the players and fouls, and notify the referee of three consecutive fouls. He shall have the power to disqualify players under rule 5.
- The referee must watch the ball and determine when the ball is in play (inbounds) and when it is out of bounds (out of bounds), which side should be in possession of the ball, and any other action that the referee would normally take .
- The game consists of two halves of 15 minutes each with a break of 5 minutes between them.
- The side with the most goals during this time period is the winner.
The most important rule change in the history of basketball is the introduction of dribbling. In the original version of the game, this was prohibited by paragraph 3 of the rules.
One of the first changes in the game and the rules was the replacement of the basket with a ring with a net. It seemed to be very inconvenient to climb after the ball every time after a hit. Around the same time, free throws, dribbling appeared, and the composition of the teams was fixed for 5 players on the court at the same time. Before that, in some matches, up to 50 people could be on the court at the same time. All this happened back in 1896-1897.
The emergence of FIBA (International Basketball Federation)
Basketball at the beginning of the 20th century became more popular and the rules in each country could be different.
This was one of the reasons why FIBA appeared in 1932 year. At the first FIBA Congress, the teams were approved (5 people and 2 substitutes), and it was decided that after each goal there would be a throw-in in the center. This rule was removed after 4 years to reduce the advantage of tall players.
Over the next few years, the main changes were related to the number of personal fouls, the number of players on the bench and the introduction of a time limit for getting the ball into the opponent's half of the court.
More changes came in 1952 after the Olympic Games. The game became very boring, because the teams held the ball, having received a minimal lead in the score. Everyone understood this and searched for solutions for several years in order to save the life of basketball. At 1954 Danny Biason proposed to the NBA to limit the time for the shot to 24 seconds. At the 1956 Olympics, there was a similar rule: it was necessary to make a throw in 30 seconds. At the same time, to add equality between defense and attack, another rule familiar to us appeared: you need to start dribbling the ball before the supporting leg comes off.
Then the game became similar to the modern one from a technical point of view: dribbling, shots, a three-second zone appeared. In 1979, the NBA added a three-point line, and in 19In 1984, FIBA also added an arc.
!!! Article about the evolution of the three-point shot and interesting facts:
10 interesting facts about the three-point shot.
10 interesting facts about the three-point shot.
The evolution of the three-point shot and insane records.
Changes in the rules and basketball since 1956 have included the number of free kicks, the situations in which these free kicks are given, and individual and team penalties. Some rules were introduced, and a few years later they were canceled. For example, the "3 for 2" rule: if a player was fouled in the shooting phase, then if one of the first two shots was missed, he could make another free throw. This rule was later removed.
Since the 1990s there have been constant changes: the emergence of alley-oops, changes in the timing and rewriting of the rules of running, which continue to this day.
