BASKETBALL: Invention of the game

The game of basketball was created by Dr. James Naismith in 1891 to condition young athletes during the
winter. It consisted of peach baskets and a soccer style ball. He published 13 rules for the new game. He divided
his class of 18 into 2 teams of 9 players each and set about to teach them the basics of his new game. The
objective of the game was to throw the basketball, into the fruit baskets nailed to the lower railing of the gym
balcony. Every time a point was scored, the game was halted so the janitor could bring out a ladder and retrieve
the ball. After a while, the bottoms of the fruit baskets were removed. The first public basketball game was
played in Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1892.[1]

Rules
The ball may be thrown forward with one or two hands.

1. The ball may be batted in any direction with one or both hands (never with the fist).

2. A player can't run with the ball. The player could throw it from the spot on which he catches it, allowance
to be made for a man who catches the ball when running at a good speed.

3. The ball must be held in or between the hands; the arms or body must not be used for holding it.

4. No shouldering, holding, pushing, tripping, or striking in any way the person of an opponent shall be
allowed; the first infringement of this rule by any player shall count as a foul, the second shall disqualify
him until the next goal is made, or, if there was evident intent to injure the person, for the whole of the
game, no substitute allowed.

5. A foul is striking at the ball with the fist, violation of Rules 3, 4, and such as described in Rule 5.

6. If either side makes three consecutive fouls, it shall count a goal for the opponents (consecutive means
without the opponents in the mean time making a foul).

7. A goal shall be made when the ball is thrown or batted from the grounds into the basket and stays there,
providing those defending the goal do not touch or disturb the goal. If the ball rests on the edges, and
the opponent moves the basket, it shall count as a goal.

8. When the ball goes out of bounds, it shall be thrown into the field of play by the person first touching it. In
case of a dispute, the umpire shall throw it straight into the field. The thrower-in is allowed five seconds;
if he holds it longer, it shall go to the opponent. If any side persists in delaying the game, the umpire
shall call a foul on that side.

9. The umpire shall be judge of the women and men and shall note the fouls and notify the referee when
three consecutive fouls have been made. He shall have power to disqualify men according to Rule 5.

10.The referee shall be judge of the ball and shall decide when the ball is in play, in bounds, to which side it
belongs, and shall keep the time. He shall decide when a goal has been made, and keep account of the
goals with any other duties that are usually performed by a referee.
 11. The time shall be two 15-minute halves, with five minutes' rest between.

12.The side making the most baskets in that time shall be declared the winner. In case of a draw, the game
may, by agreement of the captains, be continued until another goal is made.
The first basketball game
The first basketball court:Springfield College

On December 21, 1891, James Naismith published rules for a new game using five base
ideas and thirteen rules.[2] That day, he asked his class to play a match in the Armory
Street court: 9 versus 9, using a soccer ball and two peach baskets. Frank Mahan, one of
his students, wasnt so happy. He just said: "Huh. Another new game".[3] However, Naismith was the inventor of
the new game. Someone proposed to call it Naismith Game, but he suggested "We have a ball and a basket:
why dont we call it basket ball"?[4] The eighteen players were: John J. Thompson, Eugene S. Libby, Edwin P.
Ruggles, William R. Chase, T. Duncan Patton, Frank Mahan, Finlay G. MacDonald, William H. Davis and Lyman
Archibald, who defeated George Weller, Wilbert Carey, Ernest Hildner, Raymond Kaighn, Genzabaro Ishikawa,
Benjamin S. French, Franklin Barnes, George Day and Henry Gelan 10. [5] The goal was scored by Chase.
[6]
There were other differences between Naismiths first idea and the game played today. The peach baskets
were closed, and balls had to be retrieved manually, until a small hole was put in the bottom of the peach basket
to poke the ball out using a stick. Only in 1906 were metal hoops, nets and back boards introduced. Moreover,
earlier the soccer ball was replaced by a Spalding ball, similar to the one used today.[7][8]

Basketball in America: A History

Source: The U.S. Department of State

An American game that has traveled well is basketball, now

played by more than 250 million people worldwide in an
organized fashion, as well as by countless others in "pick-
up" games. Basketball originated in 1891 when a future
Presbyterian minister named James Naismith(1861-1939)
was assigned to teach a physical education class at
a Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) training
school in Springfield, Massachusetts. The class had been
noted for being disorderly, and Naismith was told to invent a new game to keep the
young men occupied. Since it was winter and very cold outside, a game that could be
played indoors was desirable.

Naismith thought back to his boyhood in Canada, where he and his friends had played
"duck on a rock," which involved trying to knock a large rock off a boulder by throwing
smaller rocks at it. He also recalled watching rugby players toss a ball into a box in a
gymnasium. He had the idea of nailing up raised boxes into which players would
attempt to throw a ball. When boxes couldn't be found, he used peach
baskets. According to Alexander Wolff, in his book 100 Years of Hoops, Naismith drew
up the rules for the new game in "about an hour." Most of them still apply in some form
today.

Basketball caught on because graduates of the YMCA school traveled widely,

because Naismith disseminated the rules freely, and because there was a need for a
simple game that could be played indoors during winter. Naismith's legacy
included the first great college basketball coach, Forrest "Phog" Allen (1885-1974),
who played for Naismith at the University of Kansas and went on to win 771 games as a
coach at Kansas himself. Among Allen's star players was Wilt Chamberlain, who
became one of professional basketball's first superstars -- one night in 1962, he scored
a record 100 points in a game.

The first professional basketball league was formed in 1898; players earned $2.50 for
home games, $1.25 for games on the road. Not quite 100 years later, Juwan
Howard, a star player for the Washington Bullets (now called the Washington
Wizards), had competing offers of more than $100 million over seven seasons from the
Bullets and the Miami Heat.

Many teams in the National Basketball Association now have foreign players, who
return home to represent their native countries during the Olympic Games. The so-
called Dream Team, made up of the top American professional basketball players, has
represented the United States in recent Olympic Games. In 1996 the Dream Team
trailed some opponents until fairly late in the gamesan indication of basketball's
growing international status. In Athens in 2004 Argentina took home the gold, the first
time a Latin American country won the basketball honor