Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of

five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete
with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately 9.4
inches (24 cm) in diameter) through the defender's hoop (a basket 18
inches (46 cm) in diameter mounted 10 feet (3.048 m) high to
a backboard at each end of the court), while preventing the opposing
team from shooting through their own hoop. A field goal is worth two
points, unless made from behind the three-point line, when it is worth
three. After a foul, timed play stops and the player fouled or designated
to shoot a technical foul is given one, two or three one-point free throws.
The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but if
regulation play expires with the score tied, an additional period of play
(overtime) is mandated.
Players advance the ball by bouncing it while walking or running
(dribbling) or by passing it to a teammate, both of which require
considerable skill. On offense, players may use a variety of shots –
the layup, the jump shot, or a dunk; on defense, they may steal the ball
from a dribbler, intercept passes, or block shots; either offense or
defense may collect a rebound, that is, a missed shot that bounces from
rim or backboard. It is a violation to lift or drag one's pivot foot without
dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands then
resume dribbling.

The five players on each side fall into five playing positions. The tallest
player is usually the center, the second-tallest and strongest is the power
forward, a slightly shorter but more agile player is the small forward,
and the shortest players or the best ball handlers are the shooting
guard and the point guard, who implements the coach's game plan by
managing the execution of offensive and defensive plays (player
positioning). Informally, players may play three-on-three, two-on-two,
and one-on-one.

History
Creation

In December 1891, James Naismith, a Canadian professor of physical

education and instructor at the International Young Men's Christian
Association Training School (now Springfield College) in Springfield,
Massachusetts,[4] was trying to keep his gym class active on a rainy day.
[5]
 He sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied and
at proper levels of fitness during the long New England winters. After
rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-
in gymnasiums, he invented a new game in which players would pass a
ball to teammates and try to score points by tossing the ball into a basket
mounted on a wall. Naismith wrote the basic rules and nailed
a peach basket onto an elevated track. Naismith initially set up the peach
basket with its bottom intact, which meant that the ball had to be
retrieved manually after each "basket" or point scored. This quickly
proved tedious, so Naismith removed the bottom of the basket to allow
the balls to be poked out with a long dowel after each scored basket.

College basketball

Basketball's early adherents were dispatched to YMCAs throughout the

United States, and it quickly spread through the United States and
Canada. By 1895, it was well established at several women's high
schools. While 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 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
of the United States (forerunner of the NCAA) vied for control over the
rules for the game. The first pro league, the National Basketball League,
was formed in 1898 to protect players from exploitation and to promote
a less rough game. This league only lasted five years.
High school basketball

See also: List of U.S. high school basketball national player of the year
awards

A basketball game between the Heart Mountain and Powell High School

girls teams, Wyoming, March 1944

Before widespread school district consolidation, most American high

schools were far smaller than their present-day counterparts. 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. Perhaps the most legendary of
high school teams was Indiana's Franklin Wonder Five, which took the
nation by storm during the 1920s, dominating Indiana basketball and
earning national recognition.

Professional basketball

Ad from The Liberator magazine promoting an exhibition in Harlem,

March 1922. Drawing by Hugo Gellert.

Teams abounded throughout 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. Barnstorming squads such as
the Original Celtics and two all-African American teams, the New York
Renaissance Five ("Rens") and the (still existing) Harlem
Globetrotters played up to two hundred games a year on their national
tours.

In 1946, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) was formed. The

first game was played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between the Toronto
Huskies and New York Knickerbockers on November 1, 1946. Three
seasons later, in 1949, the BAA merged with the National Basketball
League (NBL) to form the National Basketball Association (NBA). By
the 1950s, basketball had become a major college sport, thus paving the
way for a growth of interest in professional basketball. In 1959,
a basketball hall of fame was founded in Springfield, Massachusetts, site
of the first game. Its rosters include the names of great players, coaches,
referees and people who have contributed significantly to the
development of the game. The hall of fame has people who have
accomplished many goals in their career in basketball. An upstart
organization, the American Basketball Association, emerged in 1967
and briefly threatened the NBA's dominance until the ABA-NBA
merger in 1976. Today the NBA is the top professional basketball league
in the world in terms of popularity, 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; charismatic
center 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, Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon and Karl Malone;
playmakers John Stockton, Isiah Thomas and Steve Nash; crowd-
pleasing forwards Julius Erving and Charles Barkley; European
stars Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol and Tony Parker; more recent
superstars LeBron James, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, and Stephen
Curry; and the three players who many credit with ushering the
professional game to its highest level of popularity during the 1980s and
1990s: Larry Bird, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, and Michael Jordan.

In 2001, the NBA formed a developmental league, the National

Basketball Development League (later known as the NBA D-League and
then the NBA G League after a branding deal with Gatorade). As of the
2018–19 season, the G League has 27 teams.

International basketball

The U.S. playing against Mexico at the 2014 FIBA World Cup

FIBA (International Basketball Federation) was formed in 1932 by eight

founding
nations: Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Ro
mania and Switzerland. At this time, the organization only oversaw
amateur players. Its acronym, derived from the French Fédération
Internationale de Basket-ball Amateur, was thus "FIBA". Men's
basketball was first included at the Berlin 1936 Summer Olympics,
although a demonstration tournament was held in 1904. The United
States defeated Canada in the first final, played outdoors. This
competition has usually been dominated by the United States, whose
team has won all but three titles. The first of these came in a
controversial final game in Munich in 1972 against the Soviet Union, in
which the ending of the game was replayed three times until the Soviet
Union finally came out on top.[26] In 1950 the first FIBA World
Championship for men, now known as the FIBA Basketball World Cup,
was held in Argentina. Three years later, the first FIBA World
Championship for women, now known as the FIBA Women's Basketball
World Cup, was held in Chile. Women's basketball was added to the
Olympics in 1976, which were held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with
teams such as the Soviet Union, Brazil and Australia rivaling
the American squads.

In 1989, FIBA allowed professional NBA players to participate in the

Olympics for the first time. Prior to the 1992 Summer Olympics, only
European and South American teams were allowed to field professionals
in the Olympics. The United States' dominance continued with the
introduction of the original Dream Team. In the 2004 Athens Olympics,
the United States suffered its first Olympic loss while using professional
players, falling to Puerto Rico (in a 19-point loss) and Lithuania in group
games, and being eliminated in the semifinals by Argentina. It
eventually won the bronze medal defeating Lithuania, finishing behind
Argentina and Italy. The Redeem Team, won gold at the 2008 Olympics,
and the B-Team, won gold at the 2010 FIBA World Championship in
Turkey despite featuring no players from the 2008 squad. The United
States continued its dominance as they won gold at the 2012
Olympics, 2014 FIBA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
Women's basketball

The Australian women's basketball team on winning the 2006 FIBA

World Championship

Women's basketball began in 1892 at Smith College when Senda

Berenson, a physical education teacher, modified Naismith's rules for
women. Shortly after she was hired at Smith, she went to Naismith to
learn more about the game.[27] Fascinated by the new sport and the
values it could teach, she organized the first women's collegiate
basketball game on March 21, 1893, when her Smith freshmen and
sophomores played against one another.[28] However, the first women's
interinstitutional game was played in 1892 between the University of
California and Miss Head's School.[29] Berenson's rules were first
published in 1899, and two years later she became the editor of A. G.
Spalding's first Women's Basketball Guide.[28] Berenson's freshmen
played the sophomore class in the first women's intercollegiate
basketball game at Smith College, March 21, 1893.[30] 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.
Most important terms related to the basketball court

Playing regulations

Games are played in four quarters of 10 (FIBA)[37] or 12 minutes (NBA).

 College men's games use two 20-minute halves,[39] college women's
[38]

games use 10-minute quarters,[40] and most United States high school

varsity games use 8-minute quarters; however, this varies from state to
state.[41][42] 15 minutes are allowed for a half-time break under FIBA,
NBA, and NCAA rules[39][43][44] and 10 minutes in United States high
schools.[41] Overtime periods are five minutes in length[39][45][46] except for
high school, which is four minutes in length.[41] 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.

Equipment
The only essential equipment in a basketball game 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,
score sheets, scoreboard(s), alternating possession arrows, and whistle-
operated stop-clock systems.

A regulation basketball court in international games is 28 meters (92

feet) long and 15 meters (49 feet) wide. In the NBA and NCAA the
court is 94 by 50 feet (29 by 15 meters).[35] Most courts have wood
flooring, usually constructed from maple planks running in the same
direction as the longer court dimension.[51][52] The name and logo of the
home team is usually painted on or around the center circle.
The basket is a steel rim 18 inches (46 cm) diameter with an attached net
affixed to a backboard that measures 6 by 3.5 feet (1.8 by 1.1 meters)
and one basket is at each end of the court. The white outlined box on the
backboard is 18 inches (46 cm) high and 2 feet (61 cm) wide. At almost
all levels of competition, the top of the rim is exactly 10 feet (3.05
meters) above the court and 4 feet (1.22 meters) inside the baseline.
While variation is possible in the dimensions of the court and backboard,
it is considered important for the basket to be of the correct height – a
rim that is off by just a few inches can have an adverse effect on
shooting. The net must "check the ball momentarily as it passes through
the basket" to aid the visual confirmation that the ball went through.
 The act of checking the ball has the further advantage of slowing
[53]

down the ball so the rebound doesn't go as far.[54]

The size of the basketball is also regulated. For men, the official ball is
29.5 inches (75 cm) in circumference (size 7, or a "295 ball") and
weighs 22 oz (620 g). If women are playing, the official basketball size
is 28.5 inches (72 cm) in circumference (size 6, or a "285 ball") with a
weight of 20 oz (570 g). In 3x3, a formalized version of the halfcourt 3-
on-3 game, a dedicated ball with the circumference of a size 6 ball but
the weight of a size 7 ball is used in all competitions (men's, women's,
and mixed teams).[55]

Violations
Main article: Violation (basketball)

The ball may be advanced toward the basket by being shot, passed
between players, thrown, tapped, rolled or dribbled (bouncing the ball
while running).

The ball must stay within the court; the last team to touch the ball before
it travels out of bounds forfeits possession. The ball is out of bounds if it
touches a boundary line, or touches any player or object that is out of
bounds.

There are limits placed on the steps a player may take without dribbling,
which commonly results in an infraction known as traveling. Nor may a
player stop his dribble and then resume dribbling. A dribble that touches
both hands is considered stopping the dribble, giving this infraction the
name double dribble. Within a dribble, the player cannot carry the ball
by placing his hand on the bottom of the ball; doing so is known
as carrying the ball. A team, once having established ball control in the
front half of their court, may not return the ball to the backcourt and be
the first to touch it. A violation of these rules results in loss of
possession.

The ball may not be kicked, nor be struck with the fist. For the offense, a
violation of these rules results in loss of possession; for the defense,
most leagues reset the shot clock and the offensive team is given
possession of the ball out of bounds.

There are limits imposed on the time taken before progressing the ball
past halfway (8 seconds in FIBA and the NBA; 10 seconds in NCAA
and high school for both sexes), before attempting a shot (24 seconds in
FIBA, the NBA, and U Sports (Canadian universities) play for both
sexes, and 30 seconds in NCAA play for both sexes), holding the ball
while closely guarded (5 seconds), and remaining in the restricted area
known as the free-throw lane, (or the "key") (3 seconds). These rules are
designed to promote more offense.