Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by placing a ball through a 10 foot high hoop (the goal) under organized rules. Basketball is one of the most popular and widely viewed sports in the world. Points are scored by throwing the ball through the basket from above; the team with more points at the end of the game wins. The ball can be advanced on the court by bouncing it or passing it between teammates.
History:- In early December 1891, Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian physical education professor at YMCA Training School, Massachusetts, USA, sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied and at proper levels of fitness during the long New England winters. He nailed a peach basket into a 10-foot elevated track. The peach basket retained its bottom and balls had to be retrieved manually after each “basket” or point scored. This proved inefficient, so, a hole was drilled into the bottom of the basket, allowing the balls to be poked out with a long dowel each time. Naismith called the new game “Basket Ball”. The first official game of basketball was played in the YMCA gymnasium on January 20, 1892 with 9 players. Women’s basketball began in 1892. The first women’s collegiate basketball game was organized on March 21, 1893.
The first pro league, the National Basketball League, was formed in 1898 in US. In 1906, the peach baskets were finally replaced by metal hoops with backboards. A soccer ball was used to shoot goals. By the 1950s, basketball became a major college sport in US. The first balls made specifically for basketball were brown. Later orange balls that are now in common use were introduced. In 1905, the National Women’s Basketball Committee’s Basket Ball Rules was created by the American Physical Education Association. In 1926, the Amateur Athletic Union backed the first national women’s basketball championship, complete with men’s rules.
International Basketball Federation:- The International Basketball Federation, “FIBA.” was formed in 1932 by eight founding nations: Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania and Switzerland. Men’s Basketball was first included in the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936. In 1950 the first FIBA World Championship for men was held in Argentina. Three years later, the first FIBA World Championship for Women was held in Chile. Women’s basketball was added to the Olympics in 1976. FIBA dropped the distinction between amateur and professional players in 1989, and in 1992, professional players played for the first time in the Olympic Games.