Basketball Wiki

Basketball 101
How to play:

You need two teams of 5 players each. This sport is played on a rectangular court which has a basketball hoop on either end of the court. The objective of this game is to shoot (type of throwing) the basketball (which is a round ball usually a brown or orange color and 10 inches in diameter) into the other team's hoop. There is a three point line which is a curved line from the out of bounds line by the hoop up towards the half court line and then back down to the out of bounds line in a "U" shape. If you shoot the ball behind this line you earn 3 points for your team. If you shoot the ball into the hoop from any other spot inside that line you earn 2 points for your team. There is also a free throw line which is located parallel to the hoop and a person shoots from this line (and earns one point if they score) after the opposing team is charged with a certain foul. A foul is an illegal move such as a unnecessary physical contact or aggressiveness.

The team that has the most points at the end of the game wins. There may be overtime at the end of the game if the teams are tied at the end of regulation time.

The History of Basketball
Basketball was first invented in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts. The creator of this game was Dr. James Naismith. When the game was initially created it only contained 13 rules that you had to follow and was played by shooting a ball into a peach basket. This game was created to keep athletes of other sports in shape during the winter months. The first game was played when Naismith divided his class of 18 into two teams, then the first game began.

American colleges were the first institutions to have basketball and later lead the way to developing the NBA. The basketball league was founded in 1946 in New York City and was originally called the "Basketball Association of America" (BAA). It later obtained the name of The National Basketball Association after coming together with another basketball league.

There are many different levels of basketball that are played across the world. For example there is Highschool Basketball, College Basketball, Women's Basketball, Professional Basketball and International Basketball.

The only two essential equipments for Basketball are the ball and the court with a basket on each opposing side. A regulation basketball court is 94 feet long by 50 feet wide. The basketball hoop is a steal rim that is 18 inches in diameter attached to a backboard and is up 10 feet high.