Basketball
...school asked the janitor to hang a couple of boxes from the gymnasium balcony for an experimental indoor ball game. A former divinity student who had played rugby, he disliked the rough side of sports so he thought about guidelines that would rule out physical contact in the new game. He decided upon upright goals to minimize force on the ball and to keep some distance between the players and the actual scoring. The game became known as basketball because the janitor, unable to find boxes to make the elevated goals, nailed up two half-bushel peach baskets.
The inventor's "fundamental principles" of basketball, and most of the 13 original rules he posted a century ago, have endured. By penalizing offensive or defensive fouls, court officials preserve the sport's old-fashioned ideals. But style and performance give modern basketball a wholly different look. The new era's superstars have perfected moves that earlier players could never have imagined--Kareem's skyhook, the Big Dipper's finger roll, Dr. J's slam dunk, Magic's no-look pass, Air Jordan's hang time. (See also Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem; Chamberlain, Wilt; Erving, Julius; Johnson, Magic; Jordan, Michael.)
Basketball has always enjoyed great popularity. Within a decade of its invention there were women's teams, professional circuits, and an intercollegiate conference. The game quickly spread to Canada, France, and Australia, and was introduced into Olympic competition in 1904. Today young people play basketball in grade school, high school, college, and at athletic clubs. Many teams represent towns, churches, service clubs, and businesses. In addition to the amateur teams there are regular leagues and independent professional clubs. More than 200 million persons a year pay to see basketball games--more admissions than for any other American sport.
Broadcasts of the games played in international...
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