Evolution of Basketball from 1900 to Present

Evolution of Basketball from 1900 to Present

Introduction

As it is popularly known today , basketball is a sport played by two five-member teams in which the primary objective is to shoot or throw a ball through a basket or hoop in to score . The game is played on a standard-sized , rectangular court through which the players run from end-to-end where their respective field goals are situated . Players dribble the ball or pass it on to their teammates in to advance it nearer to their team 's goal . The first team to score

more points within a given timeframe wins the game

Basketball has not always been played that way , however . During its beginnings , the play was so much simpler , there were only thirteen basic rules and even the hoop and the court were very different . Indeed basketball has gone a long way from serving as a mere distraction and exercise for raucous college students during the 1900 's to being one of the most popular spectator sports in the local and international sports arena that is now . The discussion that follows shall provide an overview of basketball 's history and evolution from its early days to the present

Origins

Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith , a Canadian doctor and physical education teacher at McGill University and at Springfield College in Massachusetts under the direction and pressure of Luther Halsey Gulick , the head of Springfield physical education department The game was originally intended to be a diversion for Springfield College students to keep them occupied and fit as well during the cold winter season . The game was chosen from among several other suggested games which were found to be too strenuous or inappropriate for the indoor setting . The first hoops were actually peach baskets that were nailed to a 10-foot high railing . These peach baskets had their bottoms retained and so every time the ball is thrown into it , it had to be pushed out of the basket using a dowel . The courts then were about half the size of an official National Basketball Association (NBA ) court today and the ball used was a soccer ball

In 1892 , the first thirteen rules of basketball were created (see Appendix A . It was also that year when women 's basketball began in Smith College using a modified version of Naismith 's rules and when the first official men 's basketball game was played in a gymnasium of YMCA with nine players . Since then , basketball 's popularity quickly spread throughout the colleges of U .S . and Canada through the YMCA chapters . As colleges adopted the game , more and more teams were created and intercollegiate games became widely held in different states . When YMCA started to recognize that the game was already conflicting with their mission , they discouraged the playing of the game . Clubs , schools and communities , however , continued to play . Two associations , the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU ) and NCAA 's predecessor , the Intercollegiate Athletic Association (IAA ) contended for the game...