BASKETBALL

HISTORY
Beltran, James Bryan T.
SBIT 2G
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 Early History

02 Dr. James Naismith

03 Evolution of Basketball ball

04 Formation of different teams,

associations., leagues, etc.
 Early
01 History
 Invention of the game
The game of basketball as it is known today was created by Dr.
James Naismith in December 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts, to
condition young athletes during cold months. Naismith was a physical
education instructor at YMCA International Training School (now
known as Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts. Upon the
request of his boss, Naismith was tasked to create an indoor sports
game to help athletes keep in shape in cold weather. It consisted of
peach baskets and a soccer style ball. He published 13 rules for the
new game. He divided his class of eighteen into two teams of nine
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.
 Naismith's original rules
There were only thirteen rules of "basket ball":
1. The ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands.
2. The ball may be batted in any direction with one or both hands.
3. A player cannot run with the ball, the player must throw it from
the spot on which he catches it, allowance to be made for a
man who catches the ball when running at good speed.
4. The ball must be held in or between the hands, the arms or
body must not be used for holding it.
5. 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 person 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.
6. A foul is striking the ball with the fist, violation of rules 3 and 4,
and such as described in rule 5.
7. If either side makes three consecutive fouls it shall count a goal
 Naismith's original rules
8. A goal shall be made when the ball is thrown or batted from grounds
into the basket and stays there. If the ball rests on the edge and the
opponent moves the basket it shall count as a goal.
9. When the ball goes out of bounds it shall be thrown into the field and
played 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 them.
10. The umpire shall be the judge of the men and shall note the fouls, and
notify the referee when three consecutive fouls have been made.
11. The referee shall be the judge of the ball and shall decide when the
ball is in play, in-bounds, and 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.
12. The time shall be fifteen-minute halves, with five-minute rests
between.
13. The side making the most goals in that time shall be declared the
 The first basketball game

On December 21, 1891, Naismith published rules for a new game using five basic ideas and thirteen rules. 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, wasn't so happy. He just said: "Harrumph. Another new
game". Someone proposed to call it "Naismith Game", but he suggested "We have a ball and a basket: why
don’t we call it basketball?" The eighteen players were John G. 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 1–0. The goal was scored by Chase. There were other
differences between Naismith's 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 backboards introduced. Moreover, earlier the
soccer ball was replaced by a Spalding ball, similar to the one used today.
02 Dr. James Naismith
James Naismith
The instructor of this class was James Naismith, a 31-year-old graduate student. After graduating
from Presbyterian College in Montreal with a theology degree, Naismith embraced his love of
athletics and headed to Springfield to study physical education—at that time, a relatively new
and unknown academic discipline—under Luther Halsey Gulick, superintendent of physical
education at the College and today renowned as the father of physical education and recreation
in the United States.

As Naismith, a second-year graduate student who had been named to the teaching faculty, looked
at his class, his mind flashed to the summer session of 1891, when Gulick introduced a new
course in the psychology of play. In class discussions, Gulick had stressed the need for a new
indoor game, one “that would be interesting, easy to learn, and easy to play in the winter and by
artificial light.” No one in the class had followed up on Gulick’s challenge to invent such a game.
But now, faced with the end of the fall sports season and students dreading the mandatory and
dull required gymnasium work, Naismith had a new motivation.
Two instructors had already tried and failed to devise activities that would interest the young men.
The faculty had met to discuss what was becoming a persistent problem with the class’s
unbridled energy and disinterest in required work.

During the meeting, Naismith later wrote that he had expressed his opinion that “the trouble is not
with the men, but with the system that we are using.” He felt that the kind of work needed to
motivate and inspire the young men he faced “should be of a recreative nature, something that
would appeal to their play instincts.”

Before the end of the faculty meeting, Gulick placed the problem squarely in Naismith’s lap.

“Naismith,” he said. “I want you to take that class and see what you can do with it.”

So Naismith went to work. His charge was to create a game that was easy to assimilate, yet complex
enough to be interesting. It had to be playable indoors or on any kind of ground, and by a large
number of players all at once. It should provide plenty of exercise, yet without the roughness of
football, soccer, or rugby since those would threaten bruises and broken bones if played in a
confined space.
Much time and thought went into this new creation. It became an adaptation of many games of its time,
including American rugby (passing), English rugby (the jump ball), lacrosse (use of a goal), soccer (the
shape and size of the ball), and something called duck on a rock, a game Naismith had played with his
childhood friends in Bennie’s Corners, Ontario. Duck on a rock used a ball and a goal that could not be
rushed. The goal could not be slammed through, thus necessitating “a goal with a horizontal opening
high enough so that the ball would have to be tossed into it, rather than being thrown.”

Naismith approached the school janitor, hoping he could find two, 18-inch square boxes to use as goals. The
janitor came back with two peach baskets instead. Naismith then nailed them to the lower rail of the
gymnasium balcony, one at each end. The height of that lower balcony rail happened to be ten feet. A
man was stationed at each end of the balcony to pick the ball from the basket and put it back into play.
It wasn’t until a few years later that the bottoms of those peach baskets were cut to let the ball fall
loose.

Naismith then drew up the 13 original rules, which described, among other facets, the method of moving
the ball and what constituted a foul. A referee was appointed. The game would be divided into two, 15-
minute halves with a five-minute resting period in between. Naismith’s secretary typed up the rules
and tacked them on the bulletin board. A short time later, the gym class met, and the teams were
chosen with three centers, three forwards, and three guards per side. Two of the centers met at mid-
court, Naismith tossed the ball, and the game of “basket ball” was born.
 Evolution of
03 Basketball Ball
 EVOLUTION OF THE
BASKETBALL BALL
Dr. James Naismith invented basketball in 1891, and in the beginning,
hoopers used a soccer ball they tossed into peach baskets. In 1894,
Naismith enlisted some help to solve that problem for good.
Flashback to years earlier: after a successful professional baseball
career, Albert Goodwill Spalding opened the first A.G. Spalding &
Brothers sporting goods store in Chicago in 1876. Naismith
approached Spalding almost 20 years later about developing the
first basketball, and he did, providing the sport with the ball players
across the world use today.

It wasn’t until 1937 that laces disappeared, and in the subsequent years,
the circumference shrunk to 30 inches. Four panels changed to
eight, and the movement toward the basketball you see when you
walk into a gym today was fully underway.
 Perhaps one of the most notable changes is color. Before the late
1950s, brown was the color used for the basketball. But Butler
head coach Tony Hinkle didn’t like it. He felt it made the ball blend
in with the court, adding difficulty for players and spectators to
keep track of the rock. Hinkle wanted the sport to move on from
brown and select a new color for its ball. He chose orange.

Hinkle connected with Spalding and recommended his innovation. The

orange basketball first burst onto the scene in the 1958 NCAA
Finals. Kentucky defeated Seattle, 84-72, in Louisville, Kentucky, to
win the national championship March 22, 1958, and did so with
stylish new ball that everyone in the building could easily see.
Orange was shortly adopted as the standard for the basketball ball, and
that is still the case in 2019. The ball has undergone tons of other
alternations since, though. The first synthetic leather ball came in
1972, and in 1983, the NBA accepted Spalding’s full-grain leather
basketball as its official tool. Then 10 years later, Spalding released
its first composite leather ball, and five more years on, the
company unveiled the trademarked Oatmeal and Orange ball
named the official ball of the WNBA.
We’ve seen even further innovation in the last 20 years, like balls that
stay inflated, pump technology, countless designs and more.
Surely, this will continue, and one day we will be hooping in the
heavens with the perfect basketball. That is, until the next
advancement comes along and sets the next standard.
 Formation of
different teams,
04 leagues,
associations,
etc.
 Formation of FIBA
World basketball was growing, but it was on June 18, 1932 that a real
international organization was formed, to coordinate tournaments
and teams: that day, Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy,
Latvia, Portugal, Romania and Switzerland founded
the International Basketball Federation (Fédération internationale
de basketball amateur, FIBA) in Geneva. Its work was fundamental
for the first inclusion of basketball in the Berlin Olympic Games in
1936. The first Olympic title was won by the U.S. national
team: Sam Balter, Ralph Bishop, Joe Fortenberry, Tex
Gibbons, Francis Johnson, Carl Knowles, Frank Lubin, Art
Mollner, Donald Piper, Jack Ragland, Willard Schmidt, Carl
Shy, Duane Swanson, Bill Wheatley and the trainer James Needles.
Canada was runner-up; the games were played on an outdoor clay
court. The first World Championship was held in Argentina in 1950.
 NBA
The Basketball league was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946 as the Basketball Association
of America (BAA). The league adopted the name National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1949
after merging with the rival National Basketball League (NBL). As of the early 21st century, the
NBA is the most significant professional basketball league in the world in terms of popularity,
salaries, talent, and level of competition. The NBA's commissioner's name is Adam Sliver and
his job is to oversee the tasks in the organization. Many rule changes have occurred since the
inception of professional basketball that has altered the game to what we now recognize today.
These rule changes did not occur all at once but instead evolved to suit the changing style of
play. Starting with the widening of the free-throw lane in 1951 and a further extension in 1964,
this change was made to reduce the dominant impact of Centres who played with their back
facing the basket - otherwise known as Post Position. Then in 1954, the 24-second shot
clock was introduced. This was done to increase the speed of the game, by forcing the team
with the basketball to shoot the ball before the 24-second timer is up. Finally, the NBA
introduced the three-point line, in the 1979-1980 season. This was done to spread out the
players, which were predominantly playing underneath the basket at this time as well as add a
further degree of difficulty to the game.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the influx of black athletes increased excitement and revitalized
the NBA. By this time, the League was mainly composed of African American players, and most
of the top stars were black. However, in the late 1970s, the popularity of the NBA was once
again threatened by the decline in attendance and television ratings. In 1979, the NBA's TV
audience declined by 18%.
In the 1980s, former university superstar Earvin "Magic" Johnson of Los Angeles and Larry Bird of
Boston once again gave hope to the league. They changed the way the game was played. That's
because Johnson and Bird can do a lot of things that little players of the past could do, but
they're six foot nine. They were finally selected as the 50 best players in NBA history. Just
when the NBA needed a new force, Johnson and Bird gave the NBA a new big game to restore
its low popularity. During and after that, some superstars entered the league, including Charles
Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, and Michael Jordan.
 American Basketball
Association
The American Basketball Association (ABA) was founded as an alternative to the
NBA in 1967 at a time when the NBA was experiencing a lot of popularity. The
ABA offered an alternative ethos and game style as well as some changes in
the rules. Julius Erving was the leading player in the league, and helped launch
a modern style of play that emphasizes leaping and play above the rim. His
playing strength helped legitimize the American Basketball Association. The
league emphasized excitement and liveliness, be it in the color of the ball (red,
white and blue), the manner of play, wild promotions, or the three-point shot.
National recognition and earnings were low, leading the league to look for a
way out of its problems. Merger with the more established and very successful
NBA was seen as a solution. The ABA was folded into the NBA in the summer of
1976, its four most successful franchises (the New York Nets, Denver
Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, and San Antonio Spurs) being incorporated into the
older league. The aggressive, loose style of play and the three-point shot were
taken up by the NBA.
 Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_basketball
#Early_professional_leagues,_teams,_and_organizati
ons
https://nothingbutnylon.com/hoops-history-
evolution-basketball/
https://springfield.edu/where-basketball-was-
invented-the-birthplace-of-basketball
 THANKS

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