In December of 1891, Dr. James Naismith was a teacher at the Young Men's Christian Association Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was winter and one of his superiors, Dr. Luther Gulick, asked of Dr. Naismith to come up with a game that could be played during the winter months ("History"). Dr. Naismith had played rugby and he didn't like the roughness of that game. He wanted a team game which would get rid of most physical contact ("Basketball"). The game contained elements from American football, soccer, and hockey ("History").

Dr. Naismith contemplated the way the game should be played and what should be used for a goal. His original idea was to have a vertical goal. When he consulted some of his students, they brought to his at

tention that people would be able to block an attempt to score by simply raising their hand in front of the ball. He then came up with the idea of a horizontal goal in which the players would have to throw the ball in an arc. This would mean less force would be needed to get the ball in and it also meant that the opposing players wouldn't be able to block a shot so easily (Anderson, 5).

In 1937, the center jump rule was taken away. This rule was, that after every made basket, each team would get around the center circle as they did at the tip-off, and jump again (Anderson, 9). Before this rule was taken away, twenty points was often enough for as team to win. The departure of this rule allowed teams to fast break, which intern, made the scores much higher.

Until 1923 one player could shoot all of his or her team's foul shots. This was always the teams best shooter, which meant that this one player would more often than not, score most of his or her teams points (Anderson, 9).

The Celtics proved to be the best team in history. They were the first dynasty. Under some of the best coaches every to coach, they won an average of 57.6 wins out of 80 per season (Vancil, 12). They won eight championships in a row, and have a total of sixteen which is five more than any other team. The other great team throughout the ages was the Lakers. They won five championships in Minneapolis and six more after they moved to Los Angeles, for a total of eleven (Vancil, 26). The turning point for the NBA was the 1966-67 season. The Celtics were dominating and Bill Russell, the center for Boston, made $100,000 for that year (Vancil, 13). The fan interest was at an all-time high.

In 1906, a new type of goal, the metal hoop, was introduced. A bag of "braided cord netting" was attached to the bottom of the hoop. By pulling this cord, the ball would pop out of the net. Soon they started to use a net like the one used today ("History").

By 1897, the size of teams had reduced to only five players and the ball was replaced with a slightly larger leather ball, very similar to what is used today ("Basketball"). As the popularity grew, more people began to go and watch the games. Sometimes the fans would sit up on the balcony which the baskets were hung and would often interfere with a shot. This caused a problem because at that time there was no rule for fan interference. This caused another piece of equipment to be introduced. The backboard, which was o

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Approximate Word count = 1670
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)