Sports & Games

Basketball is fun to watch and people from all over the world watch games everyday. The sport is growing in popularity each year. The game of basketball is based on easy to lean rules. The game offers more enjoyment to those who understand the basic concepts of the sport.

The game is a contest between two teams that play against each other. The team objective is to shoot the ball into the metal hoop or basket. The hoop or goal is ten feet from the floor.

A team has three positions. There is one center per team and plays at the post position, the area ten feet within the basket. The middle area is referred to the wing area and this is the where the forward plays. There are two forwards per team. There are two guards per team. The guard play at the top of the key.

The key is the area that reaches twenty feet from the baseline of the court. The players who have control of the ball are said to be on the offensive. The team without control of the ball is said to be on the defensive. The offensive team tries to shoot the ball into the hoop, also known as scoring, while the defensive team’s objective is to try to keep the offense from scoring.

The offensive team, by putting the basketball into the hoop, can score one point, two points, or three points. The offense will score one point by scoring on a free shot or free throw. The free shot is given to an offensive player who was fouled by a defensive player.

The player on defense fouls the offense player by pushing, hitting, or otherwise coming into contact with the offense player. The charity shot is allowed to a player who can shoot at the basket without being contested. The offensive player who is fouled will receive two charity throws each time he or she is fouled.

The team will receive two points if the team shoots the ball into the hoop from within the three point line. If an offensive player puts the basketball in the hoop from outside the three point line he or she will score three points for his team. The team with the most points at the end of basketball games wins. Basketball is very easy to learn and fun to watch. The game is growing in popularity everyday.

The history of basketball is much easier to trace than other sports. It is clear that Dr. James Naismith is credited with creating basketball and much of basketball history. Dr. Naismith, born in 1861 in Ontario, Canada first came up with the concept of basketball during his youth school days in the area where he played a game that involved knocking a rock off an object by attempting to throw another rock at it. The game obviously evolved from there and began the history of basketball.

Mr. Naismith taught at the YMCA School in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891, where the sport of basketball was created. He was faced with a problem of finding a sport that could be played indoors during the harsh Massachusetts winters. He needed to come up with a game that could be played in and outdoors and one that adopted a sense of skill and not just brawn. He first developed the game by involving a soccer ball and two peach baskets, who would have ever thought basketball history, could come from a soccer ball.

In addition to creating basketball Dr. Naismith became a medical doctor focused on sports science and was a minister. Naismith watched his sport grow to become one of the world’s most popular sports that saw its entrance in the Olympics in 1936 at Berlin and he fixed himself a spot in basketball history.

The history of basketball began with teams of five and was the sports standard by 1897. The sport became popular to both men and women and began to spread throughout Canada and the US. The US servicemen took the sport overseas with them in WWII and the history of basketball became global.

U.S. colleges accepted the game and began to have it as a standard college sport. College basketball history took off around the late 1890′s and the first college game began at the Madison Square Garden in New York.

Professional basketball history first began when the National Basketball League was created in the late 1800′s around 1898. The league however did not last and was broken up after 5 years providing a rough start to basketball history. The break up just led to a number of random leagues forming themselves in the early 1900′s and each was very loosely organized. Ironically enough the first super team was the Celtics but they were from New York City not Boston. The famous Harlem globetrotters were also founded around this time in 1927 and hold a place in basketball history as being the most entertaining of basketball teams.

It wasn’t until 1949 that two professional basketball leagues the NBL and the BAA merged to create what we all know now as the National Basketball Association or the NBA. The Boston Celtics dominated the NBA from the late 1950s through the 1960s. By the 1960s, professional teams had formed throughout the United States and basketball was a mainstream powerhouse. Players such as Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russel and Kareem Abdul-Jabar all became household names that drew millions to watch them play as they all found a spot in basketball history.

National Basketball Association fell off the charts and was surpassed by football in popularity through the 1970′s then got a resurgence from the popular Larry Bird and Magic Johnson era. Michael Jordan carried the league through the eighties and nineties and the torch has been passed on to Shaquille O’neal, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James. The history of basketball has never been so fascinating and it is all thanks to Dr. James Naismith.
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Most basketball associations (most notably, the NBA) have their own specific set of rules of play, though all are similar at their core. Here is, more or less, the international standard guidebook for how to play basketball. Two 10′ hoops will be set up at opposite ends of a court. NBA and collegiate standard size is 94′ long (and 50′ wide), though courts (and hoop height) can be shorter, especially for younger players.

Games are played by 2 teams of 5 players each for a total of 1 hour. Collegiate and high school games are divided into 4 10-minute quarters (pros play for 12, and younger players either 6 or 8 minutes). The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Game play begins at the mid-court line during a tip off. The ball is then taken by the offense towards a basket through dribbling and passing, while the defense tries to gain possession of the ball (thus becoming the offense). When the team scores they are given 2 points, with the exception of baskets scored from outside the 3-point line, for which they get 3. The other team is then given possession. Play continues like this until halftime, when the teams switch sides.

If at any point in the game a team commits a foul, the other team is awarded free throws. Free throws are worth 1 point each. These shots are taken unguarded from the free-throw line outside of game time. Blocking, charging, hacking and holding are all offenses that carry a free-throw penalty.
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