history of basketball

1. 84

   Whitney05posted 15 years ago

   history of basketball

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2. 52

   cjones77posted 15 years ago

   What about the history of basketball do you want to know?

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3. 0

   jacobt2posted 15 years ago

   James Naismith invented basketball in 1891. He was a physician and also a teacher at a school. At the school he invented basketball by putting peach baskets on walls and using a soccer ball. The game was used as recreation for students. The rules developed over time.

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4. 73

   Beth100posted 15 years ago

   James Naismith was a Canadian inventor of the game of basketball.  He lived in Almonte, Ontario.  His home is now a historical site.  He invented the sport of basketball in 1891.  He wrote the original basketball rule book.  He lived to see basketball become an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and its becoming an official event in 1936.  He has won several awards, including being honored in the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame, the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame, the Ontario Sports Legends Hall of Fame, the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, the FIBA Sports Hall of Fame as well as several other sports halls of fame.  The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was named after him. 
   
   Hope this was helpful!  Oh, did you know that he invented the first football helmet?

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5. 83

   Mike Lickteigposted 15 years ago

   A little trivia:  An early Naismith player at the University of Kansas was believed to be (but not confirmed as) a son of Jesse James. 
   
   Naismith is buried in a cemetery in East Lawrence, Kansas.
   
   OK, neither of these things have anything really to do with the history of basketball, but since the topic was pretty vague to begin with, I thought I would throw in my trivia. 
   
   Cheers!

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6. 56

   Ball2Dayposted 15 years ago

   John McLendon attended the  University of Kansas from 1933-37 and his  advisor was Dr. James Naismith.  He was not allowed to play on the all-white varsity basketball team because he was African -American. He studied the game at the feet of Dr. Naismith. Upon earning his degree he spread the Dr. Naismith gospel everywhere. Dr. Naismith believed the game should be played from baseline to baseline.
   John McLendon was one of the great innovators of the fast break. He was the first collegiate coach to win 3 straight national titles of any kind. His Tennessee State team won NAIA titles in 1957, 58 and 59. he was also the first African-American to be a head coach of a predominately White team at Cleveland State. He also  organized a game between his all black North Carolina College for Negroes and the Duke University Medical School in 1944. At the time this was illegal in North Carolina. His team won 88-44. He coached a pro team in Cleveland,  who by the way had a young owner by the name of George Steinbrenner. John McLendon was truly underappreciated for what he gave to the game of basketball

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7. 61

   Tim Quamposted 12 years ago

   It's been suggested that based on some of the hyperbole that the game was invented by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, both rookies in the 1979-80 NBA season.  But the league began in the late 1940s and was dominated by the then Minneapolis Lakers, winners of five league championships over a six-year span.  The Lakers team included George Mikan, the game's first dominant big man.  The league instituted a shot clock in the 1954-55 season. No longer would there be defensive struggles like the Fort Wayne Pistons 19-18 defeat of the Lakers in a 1950 game.  The league added the three-point shot in the 1979-80 season, although it had been used in the American Basketball Association.  The ABA had a nine-year life before four of its surviving franchises — the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets, and San Antonio Spurs — merged into the NBA in the 1976-77 season.  The first 3-point champion was Fred Brown of the Seattle SuperSonics.  The league's most dominant team for a decade was the Boston Celtics who won no less than nine championships during the 1960s.  The NBA's greatest team for a single regular season was the Chicago Bulls, who went 72-10  during the 1995-96 season en route to the first of three straight league championships.  That was Michael Jordan's first complete season after a brief retirement from the game during which he pursued a baseball career.  He didn't play basketball during the 1993-94 season and played only 17 regular-season games at the end of 1994-95.  In the 1992 Olympics the U.S. fielded its first team made up mostly pros, the dream team.  The U.S. team won the gold medal at Barcelona.  The team included three members of the 1984 team that won the gold medal in Los Angeles as amateurs — Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan, and Chris Mullin.  Among others on the dream team roster were Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Karl Malone, and John Stockton.  The only amateur on the roster was Christian Laettner, who would begin his NBA career that autumn.

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