A Brief History of Basketball
By Ben Akason
THE CREATION:
Dr. James Naismith originally came up with the idea for basketball on December 21, 1891. The game was not meant to be a future enterprise, but rather to be a game that would "occupy his rowdy physical education class during the harsh New England winter months." Before he came up with basketball, Dr. Naismith had tried to modify other popular sports of the time, but had failed in creating a successful winter game. Basketball's first ever game was played on January 20, 1892. From then on, basketball evolved into the game it is today.
Or click below to watch a video explaining the creation:
How Basketball Got Started The History Of Basketball
How the Rules Have Changed
Originally, basketball was played with peach baskets. This made it so every time someone scored the ball would have to be retrieved from the basket. Due to the tedium associated with getting up on a ladder and getting the ball out of the basket every few minutes, the peach basket was only kept for one year.
Original basketball and peach basket.
A ball being retrieved from a peach basket.
Naismith preparing to shoot a basketball.
Heavy woven rims are instituted in 1892 in order to eliminate the retrieving the ball part of the game.
In 1893 cast iron rims were introduced to improve the previous rims that were used.
Nylon nets became legal for use in 1912, and this helped pick up the speed of once slow basketball games because the nets helped the ball fall to floor faster.
In the beginning, basketball was played with soccer balls. However, as the game developed this became to difficult to dribble and was changed.
A bicycle company in 1894 created the first basketball and the basketball has been used ever since.
By 1929, it had been found that the laces on the ball were too bothersome and had to go. With this realization, came the change to concealed laces on the basketball.
When 1942 came, so did the change to molded basketballs.
As the rules evolved, James Naismith tried out many different team sizes ranging from 9-50 players.
In 1897, five players became the official team size.
When basketball was created, players were not allowed to come back into the game once they left.
In 1920, it changed and people could come back once.
In 1934, people could come back twice.
How the Uniform Has Changed
In the earliest days of basketball, the uniform consisted of wool shirts and shorts/pants that were tailored. As you can imagine, playing in wool was really and hot and sweaty, but that wasn't the only problem with the uniform. Since the uniforms were tailored, they were really tight and restrictive, which is not what you want when playing basketball. In the early to mid 1920s, a new modernizing change for the uniform was made. In other words, the wool went out the window, and in came tight short shorts and tight sleeve-less jerseys. Even though this was revolutionary at the time, it was still nowhere near the standard we have today. By the 1940s uniforms experienced yet another change. They began to be made out of nylon and polyester. Throughout the 70s and 80s uniforms' length of shorts and jersey tightness fluctuated often, but never really reached the modern standard. Finally, in the 90s, Michael Jordan and the Michigan Fab Five started wearing the uniforms we have today: baggy shorts, short socks, and average tightness jersey.
Earliest uniforms (late 1890s to early 1910s)
1920s uniform
1940s uniform
1980s uniform
Fab Five wearing the modern standard for uniform (1990s)
Evolution of the NBA uniform