The only essential equipment in basketball is the ball and the court: a flat, rectangular surface with baskets at opposite ends. Competitive levels require the use of more equipment such as clocks, scoresheets, scoreboards, alternating possession arrows, and whistle-operated stop-clock systems.

The men’s ball’s circumference is about 30 inches (76 cm) and weighs about 1 lb 5 oz (600 g). The women’s ball’s circumference is about 29 inches (73 cm) and weighs about 1 lb 3 oz (540 g). A regulation basketball court in international games is 28 by 15 meters (approx. 92 by 49 ft) and in the NBA is 94 by 50 feet (29 by 15 m). Most courts are made of wood.

A cast-iron basket with net and backboard hang over each end of the court. At almost all levels of competition, the top of the rim is exactly 10 feet (3.05 m) above the court and 4 feet (1.2 m) inside the endline. While variation is possible in the dimensions of the court and backboard, it is considered important for the basket to be the correct height; a rim that is off by but a few inches can have an adverse effect on shooting.

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Games are played in four quarters of 10 (international) or 12 minutes (NBA). Fifteen minutes are allowed for a half-time break, and two minutes are allowed at the other breaks. Overtime periods are five minutes long. Teams exchange baskets for the second half. The time allowed is actual playing time; the clock is stopped while the play is not active. Therefore, games generally take much longer to complete than the allotted game time, typically about two hours.

Five players from each team may be on the court at one time. Teams can have up to seven substitutes. Substitutions are unlimited but can only be done when play is stopped. Teams also have a coach, who oversees the development and strategies of the team, and other team personnel such as assistant coaches, managers, statisticians, doctors and trainers.

For both men’s and women’s teams, a standard uniform consists of a pair of shorts and a tank top with a clearly visible number, unique within the team, printed on both the front and back. Players wear high-top sneakers that provide extra ankle support. Typically, team names, players’ names and sometimes sponsors are printed on the uniforms.

A limited number of time-outs, clock stoppages requested by a coach for a short meeting with the players, are allowed. They generally last no longer than one minute unless, for televised games, a commercial break is needed.

The game is controlled by the officials consisting of the referee, one or two umpires and the table officials. The table officials are responsible for keeping track of each teams scoring, timekeeping, individual and team fouls, player substitutions, team possession arrow, and the shot clock.

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Measurements and time limits discussed in this section often vary among tournaments and organizations; international and NBA rules are used in this section.

The object of the game is to outscore one’s opponents by throwing the ball through the opponents’ basket from above while preventing the opponents from doing so on their own. An attempt to score in this way is called a shot. A successful shot is worth two points, or three points if it is taken from beyond the three-point arc which is 6.25 meters (20 ft 6 in) from the basket in international games and 23 ft 9 in (7.24 m) in NBA games.

XX. Olympic games Munich 1972 Krešimir Ćosić of Yugoslavia (blue shirt) vs. Petr Novicky of Czechoslovakia

The International Basketball Federation was formed in 1932 by eight founding nations: Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania and Switzerland. At this time, the organization only oversaw amateur players. Its acronym, in French, was thus FIBA; the “A” standing for amateur.

Basketball was first included in the Olympic Games in 1936, although a demonstration tournament was held in 1904. This competition has usually been dominated by the United States, whose team has won all but three titles, the first loss in a controversial final game in Munich in 1972 against the Soviet Union. In 1950 the first Basketball World Championship for men was held in Argentina. Three years later, the first World Championships for women were held in Chile. Women’s basketball was added to the Olympics in 1976, with teams such as Brazil and Australia rivaling the American squads.

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. The United States’ dominance continued with the introduction of their Dream Team. However, with developing programs elsewhere, other national teams are starting to catch up with the United States. A team made entirely of NBA players finished sixth in the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis, behind Yugoslavia, Argentina, Germany, New Zealand and Spain. In the 2004 Summer Olympics, the United States suffered its first Olympic loss while using professional players, falling to the Puerto Rican national basketball team and eventually came in third after Argentina and Italy. Although it should be noted that only two of the tweleve players originally selected by the NBA, Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson, choose to play in the 2004 Olympics and the team was cobbled from second and third choices.

Worldwide, basketball tournaments are held for boys and girls of all age levels, from five- and six-year-olds (called biddy-biddy), to high school, college, and the professional leagues.

The global popularity of the sport is reflected in the nationalities represented in the NBA. Players from all over the globe can be found in NBA teams. Steve Nash, who won the 2005 and 2006 NBA MVP award as the Most Valuable Player in the NBA, is a Canadian player. Dallas Mavericks superstar Dirk Nowitzki is German. All-Star Pau Gasol of the Memphis Grizzlies is from Spain The San Antonio Spurs feature three stars from outside the United States: Tim Duncan of the Virgin Islands, Manu Ginobili of Argentina, and Tony Parker of France. (Duncan competes for the United States internationally.)

The all-tournament team at the most recent Basketball World Championship held in 2002 in Indianapolis demonstrates the globalization of the game equally dramatically. The team featured Nowitzki, Ginobili, Peja Stojakovic of Yugoslavia, Yao Ming of China, and Pero Cameron of New Zealand; all except Cameron were or became NBA players.

In the NBA men get paid a great deal more than women playing in the WNBA but that is slowly changing.

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Milwaukee Bucks playing the Charlotte Bobcats in a regular season game

In 1946, the National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed, organizing the top professional teams and leading to greater popularity of the professional game. An upstart organization, the American Basketball Association, emerged in 1967 and briefly threatened the NBA’s dominance until the rival leagues merged in 1976. Today the NBA is the top professional basketball league in the world in terms of notoriety, salaries, talent, and level of competition.

The NBA has featured many famous players, including George Mikan, the first dominating “big man”; ball-handling wizard Bob Cousy and defensive genius Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics; Wilt Chamberlain, who originally played for the barnstorming Harlem Globetrotters; all-around stars Oscar Robertson and Jerry West; more recent big men Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton; playmaker John Stockton; and the four players who many credit with ushering the professional game to its highest level of popularity: Julius Erving, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan.

The NBA-backed Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) began 1997. Though it had an insecure opening season, several marquee players (Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Sue Bird among others) helped the league’s popularity and level of competition. Other professional women’s basketball leagues in the United States, such as the American Basketball League (1996-1998), have folded in part because of the popularity of the WNBA.

In 2001, the NBA formed a developmental league, the NBDL. The league currently has 8 teams, but will add 7 more for the 2006-2007 season.

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Before widespread school district consolidation, most United States high schools were far smaller than their present day counterparts and during the first decades of the 20th century basketball quickly became the ideal interscholastic sport due to its modest equipment and personnel requirements. In the days before widespread television coverage of professional and college sports, the popularity of high school basketball was unrivaled in many parts of America.

Today virtually every high school in the United States fields a basketball team in varsity competition, and its popularity remains high, both in rural areas where they carry the identification of the entire community, as well as at some larger schools known for their basketball teams where many players go on to participate at higher levels of competition after graduation. In the 2003–04 season, 1,002,797 boys and girls represented their schools in interscholastic basketball competition, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. The states of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky are particularly well known for their residents’ devotion to high school basketball; the critically acclaimed film Hoosiers shows high school basketball’s depth of meaning to these rural communities. In fact, the term “March Madness” was first used to describe the Illinois high school basketball tournament.

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Kent Benson of Indiana University Bloomington takes a hook shot.

Naismith and Berenson were instrumental in establishing college basketball. Naismith coached at University of Kansas for six years before handing the reins to renowned coach Phog Allen. Naismith’s disciple Amos Alonzo Stagg brought basketball to the University of Chicago, while Adolph Rupp, a student of Naismith’s at Kansas, enjoyed great success as coach at the University of Kentucky. In 1892, University of California and Miss Head’s School, played the first women’s inter-institutional game. Berenson’s freshmen played the sophomore class in the first women’s collegiate basketball game at Smith College, March 21, 1893. The same year, Mount Holyoke and Sophie Newcomb College (coached by Clara Gregory Baer) women began playing basketball. By 1895, the game had spread to colleges across the country, including Wellesley, Vassar and Bryn Mawr. The first intercollegiate women’s game was on April 4, 1896. Stanford women played Berkeley, 9-on-9, ending in a 2-1 Stanford victory. In 1901, colleges, including the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, University of Minnesota, the U.S. Naval Academy, the University of Utah and Yale University began sponsoring men’s games. By 1910, frequent injuries on the men’s courts prompted President Roosevelt to suggest that college basketball form a governing body. And the Intercollegiate Athletic Association (IAA) was created.

Teams abounded from through the 1920s. There were hundreds of men’s professional basketball teams in towns and cities all over the United States and little organization of the professional game. Players jumped from team to team and teams played in armories and smoky dance halls. Leagues came and went. And barnstorming squads such as the Original Celtics and two all African American teams, the New York Renaissance Five (“Rens”) and (still in existence as of 2006) the Harlem Globetrotters played up to two hundred games a year on their national tours. Women’s basketball was more structured. In 1905, the National Women’s Basketball Committee’s Executive Committee on Basket Ball Rules was created by the American Physical Education Association. These rules called for six to nine players per team and 11 officials. The International Women’s Sports Federation (1924) included a women’s basketball competition. 37 women’s high school varsity basketball or state tournaments were held by 1925. And in 1926, the Amateur Athletic Union backed the first national women’s basketball championship, complete with men’s rules. The first women’s AAU All-America team was chosen in 1929. Women’s industrial leagues sprang up throughout the nation, producing famous athletes like Babe Didrikson of the Golden Cyclones and the All American Red Heads Team who competed against men’s teams, using men’s rules. By 1938, the women’s national championship changed from a three-court game to two-court game with six players per team. The first men’s national championship tournament, the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in New York, was organizied in 1938.

College basketball was rocked by gambling scandals from 1948 to 1951, when dozens of players from top teams were implicated in match fixing and point shaving. Partially spurred by an association with cheating, the NIT lost support to the NCAA national tournament. Today, the NCAA men’s and women’s “March Madness” tournaments are rivaled only by the MLB World Series and the NFL Super Bowl in the American sports psyche.

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Video: The History Of Basketball (Part 1/10)

 The first basketball court: Springfield College.

Basketball is unique in that it was invented by one person, rather than evolving from a different sport. In early December 1891, Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian-born physician of McGill University and minister on the faculty of a college for YMCA professionals (today, Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts, sought a vigorous indoor game to keep young men occupied during the long New England winters. Legend has it that, after rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules, and nailed a peach basket onto the 10 foot (3.05 m) elevated track. In contrast with modern basketball nets, this peach basket retained its bottom. Therefore balls scored into the basket had to be poked out with a long dowel each time. Women’s basketball began in 1892, at Smith College, when Senda Berenson, a physical education teacher, modified Naismith’s rules for women. The first official basketball game was played in the YMCA gymnasium on January 20, 1892 with nine players, on a court just half the size of a present-day NBA court. “Basket ball”, the name suggested by one of Naismith’s students, was popular from the beginning.

Basketball’s early adherents were dispatched to YMCAs throughout the United States, and it quickly spread through the country. By 1896, it was well established at several women’s colleges. While the YMCA was responsible for initially developing and spreading the game, within a decade, it discouraged the new sport, as rough play and rowdy crowds began to detract from the YMCA’s primary mission. However, other amateur sports clubs, colleges, and professional clubs quickly filled the void. In the years before World War I, the Amateur Athletic Union and the Intercollegiate Athletic Association (forerunner of the NCAA) vied for control over the rules for the game.

Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball. The first balls made specifically for basketball were brown, and it was only in the late 1950s that Tony Hinkle, searching for a ball that would be more visible to players and spectators alike, introduced the orange ball that is now in common use.

Interestingly, basketball, netball, volleyball and lacrosse are the only ball games which have been identified as being invented by North Americans. Other ball games, such as baseball and football, have British Commonwealth or European connections.

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Video: Great Moments In Basketball~Part 1

Sara Giauro shoots a three-point shot, FIBA Europe Cup for Women Finals 2005.

Basketball is a sport in which two teams of five players each try to score points on one other by throwing a ball through a hoop (the basket) under organized rules.

Since its invention in 1891, it has developed to become a truly international sport. Organized league play originated in the YMCA and early leagues were formed in colleges. Basketball eventually became a professional sport and is one of the few women’s sports which developed in tandem with men’s. The modern rules for women’s basketball become more similar to men’s each year. Even though it was originally an American sport, it quickly spread internationally and outstanding players and teams are found today all over the world.

Points are scored for passing 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 (dribbling) or passing it between teammates. Disruptive physical contact (foul) is not permitted and there are restrictions on how the ball can be handled (violations).

Through time, basketball has developed to involve common techniques of shooting, passing and dribbling, as well as players’ positions, and offensive and defensive structures. While competitive basketball is carefully regulated, numerous variations of basketball have developed for casual play. Basketball is also a popular spectator sport.

While competitive basketball is primarily an indoor sport, played on a basketball court, less regulated variations have become exceedingly popular as an outdoor sport among inner city groups, particularly African-Americans. Examples of these variations include streetball and one-on-one; a variation in which two players will use only a small section of the court (often no more than a quarter of a court) and compete to play the ball into a single hoop. Such games tend to be more physical than competitive indoor basketball, and emphasize individual dribbling and ball stealing skills over shooting and team play.

Outdoor basketball courts are commonly referred to as ‘blacktop’, a reference to the [asphalt] surface used on many outdoor recreation grounds. This term can apply regardless of the actual surface material used.

Michael Jordan goes for a slam dunk

References

• National Basketball Association (2001). Official Rules of the National Basketball Association. Retrieved on July 16, 2004.
• International Basketball Federation (June 2004). Official Basketball Rules.
• Reimer, Anthony (June 2005). “FIBA vs North American Rules Comparison”. FIBA Assist (14): 40–44.
• Bonsor, Kevin. How Basketball Works: Who’s Who. HowStuffWorks. Retrieved on January 11, 2006.

Links

• National Basketball Association
• Women’s National Basketball Association
• International Basketball Federation
• Basketball at the Olympic Games
• Basketball Plays and Tips
• Sacred Hoops Youth Basketball
• History of Basketball
• Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
• Basketball on Yahoo!
• OzRef.com – Basketball Referees Resources

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