History of Basketball

As we know nowadays, basketball was born in 1891 by James Naismith, in the YMCA (Young
Men’s Christian Association) of Springfield, Massachusetts (USA).

Naismith was looking for a game that students could practice indoors, in the gym during the
harsh winters of Massachusetts. Naismith analyzed the sports practiced at that time those
which predominated were sports of force of physical contact, and he thought of something
that required more skill than strength and that did not have physical contact.

Naismith asked the manager of the College gym for some boxes about 50 inches in diameter,
but all he had were peach baskets that were slightly more open at the top to bottom.. For lack
of anything better, he hung them on the railings of the upper gallery surrounding the gym,
which happened to be 3.05 meters from the ground, and that is the height at which the
baskets are placed even today.

The ball used was a “soccer” (European football) ball and so Basketball was born. At first it
was thought to be called “Naismith ball”, but he refused to have it called after him, and so the
game was called “Basketball”.

At first, the rules disallowed dribbling, making it the slower, more predictable and boring
game. The introduction of bouncing was one of the first modifications as well as the inclusion
of a board to prevent spectators from interfering with shooting at the hoop because they
could access them from the stands without any problem.

Basketball was a demonstration sport at the Olympics in 1928 and 1932, reaching the Olympic
category at the 1936 Olympic Games. Since then, it is included in the official program and has
been performed in all 18 Olympic Games held. The U.S. team is clearly dominant as they have
won 14 times. The Former Soviet Union won twice and the former Yugoslavia and Argentina
have won once.

Meanwhile, the women’s basketball had to wait until 1976 to be included in the Olympic
Games.

In regard to the Spanish Team, despite not having won any Olympic Games, they are a brilliant
team and they have 3 silver medals from Los Angeles 1984, Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
Spain also has a gold medal for first place at the 2006 World Championship, along with 2 gold,
6 silver and 3 bronze medals at the European Championships.