Basketball is one of the biggest sports in the world and is known by many people. The invention of this sport occurred in the early 1800s. Unlike other popular sports, basketball is an all-American sport that is strictly rooted in the United States. The game was created by James Naismith, a physical education instructor, on or about December 1, 1891. This happened at the International Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) Training School, which is now known as Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts. The creation was met with great enthusiasm, and within a decade, basketball became a collegiate sport. Although the first professional league was formed in 1898, at that time the growth of the sport was fairly slow for much of the early 1900s. It started to gain inclusion in the Olympic Games in 1936 and grew in international popularity during the time of World War II. The formation of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1949 cemented the sport’s cultural importance in the United States, where it is now played at playgrounds, schoolyards, and on family driveways with many children. Basketball has now started to become known around the globe like in places notably like Spain, Italy, China, and Australia. These are places where many contributions have been made to basketball’s history.
In the early years, the number of people on a team varied according to the number of the class and the size playing in the playing area. In 1894, teams began to play with five on the side when the playing area was barely less than 1,800 square feet (167.2 square meters), then as time went they grew and rose to 3,600 square feet (334.5 square meters), and then up to nine after the playing number area exceeded that. In 1895, the number was occasionally set at five players, two years later, and this number has remained since then to play the game.
Since James Naismith and five of his original players were Canadians, it is not surprising that Canada was the first country outside of the United States to be seen playing the sport. Basketball was introduced in France in 1893, in England in 1894, in Australia, China and India, and as well as Japan in 1900.
Basketball helped the membership of the YMCA because of the availability of their gyms. Within five years, the game was outlawed by various associations because gyms that had been occupied by classes of 50 or 60 members were now monopolized by only 10 to 18 players. The banishment of the game induced many members to terminate their YMCA membership to hire the halls to play the game, also paving the way to the professionalization of the sport.
The players would originally wear one of the three styles of uniforms. Knee-length football trousers, jersey tights, as commonly worn by wrestlers, or short padded pants that were all forerunners of today’s uniform in what they wear. As time goes on, there are more famous players who are or will be known in the hall of fame for the sport of basketball and the achievements that they have made and completed. Basketball will always be a sport that plenty will play and will always be honored.
