The History of Basketball

        Hello, its about time for a blog. Today I am going to be giving all of you some insight on the sport called basketball. If you do not already know, basketball is a very popular sport internationally. Players from all over the world compete for their nation's team(s) for a chance to become champions. Basketball was invented by a fellow by the name of, James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts in the year of 1891. James was a Canadian physical education instructor for the Young Men's Christian Association(YMCA), attempting to create a new found sport that could be popular but also was less accident-prone than football. He was given the task to invent a new sport that could keep the class occupied, since they were acting disorderly. It was winter, and very cold outside so Naismith decided to invent a game that could be played indoors. His plan did not come to play automatically as he needed to think back to his childhood. He remembered watch rugby players throw a ball into boxes. Naismith had the idea to nail up boxes and have the class throw a ball and attempt to make it. The only resources he had were some peach baskets. The rules that went along with the new game were also created by Naismith in "about an hour." The new game became popular after the graduates of YMCA traveled widely to other universities. One by the name of Forest "Phong" Allen went on to play for Kansas University and also coached. While he coached he accumulated a total of 771 wins and coached a future NBA star, Wilt Chamberlain.

        The very first official professional basketball league was formed in 1898. The money that was made in the late 1890's was a lot less than today's basketball players make, Professional players earned a total of $2.50 for home games and only $1.25 for road games. Close to 100 years later, Juwan Howard, a very popular player for the Washington Bullets (now the Washington Wizards) was being competed for offers of 100 million dollars over seven seasons. NBA teams today recruit foreign players from several different nations. Although they play for an american team, they do go back to their home nation to compete in the Olympics. Today, approximately 250 million people worldwide play basketball for an organized team or casual "pick up games." In the span of 120 years, basketball is one of the most popular sports to date.