Basketball is one of the most popular sports games in the world. The US National Basketball Association players are literally world stars. At the same time, a little more than one hundred and twenty years have passed since the invention of basketball.
How basketball was invented
The invention of the forerunner of modern basketball was promoted by the cold winter of 1891 in the US state of Massachusetts. Students at the Springfield College of the Christian Youth Association were forced to exercise in the gym.
At that time, the only type of indoor sports was gymnastics, which quickly bored young people. Wanting to stir up his charges, physical education and anatomy teacher James Naismith came up with a ball game suitable for a small room. He took a couple of peach baskets and tied them to opposite ends of the balcony that ran over the entire gym.
After that, Naismith divided the group into two teams of nine and offered them a competition, which consisted of throwing balls into the opponents' basket. Thus, James Naismith not only found an interesting occupation for his students, but also inscribed his name in the history of world sports. The first basketball game took place on December 21, 1891.
In 1936, basketball was included in the Summer Olympics held in Berlin. James Naismith was also present at the opening of the games.
Game development
The basketball rules were published by Naismith in 1892 in a newspaper published by Springfield College. In the same year, a book appeared with the rules of the game, which have undergone significant changes to date. There were only thirteen points in Naismith's rules governing movement on the court, methods of throwing the ball, the principle of scoring, as well as determining violations and punishments for them. For example, according to these rules, players could not move with the ball at all, but were forced to pass it to their team members from their place.
Many basketball rules have changed, but not the height of the rings. Like one hundred and twenty years ago, they are at a height of 3 meters 5 centimeters from the floor. That was exactly the distance from the floor of the gym in Springfield to the side of the balcony.
The first professional basketball teams appeared in the early 20th century in the United States, but the problem was the lack of a centralized organization that would improve the rules, promote the game, and train referees. The first attempt to create such an association was made back in 1898, but this association did not last long.
Only in 1937, the National Basketball League was created, which in 1949 merged with the Basketball Association of America, as a result of which the world famous NBA was created - the National Basketball Association, which many basketball players of the planet dream of getting into.
