Of all the major sports in the USA, only basketball can claim to be a truly original North American invention.
Of all the major sports in the USA, only basketball can claim to be a truly original North American invention.
Seeking a way to keep his YMCA students active through long, cold New England winters, Canadian-born PE teacher James Naismith invented “basket ball” with the aid of a football and a peach basket nailed to the railings above the gymnasium floor.
The first official game was played on January 20th 1892 at the YMCA Training School (now Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Dribbling the ball wasn’t allowed but it was soon instated (in 1901) and although there have been numerous adaptations and additions over the years, basketball remains faithful to Naismith’s simple rules.
It wasn’t long before the popularity of the new game spread through YMCAs and then clubs and colleges across the U.S.
In 1904 a demonstration tournament was held at the Olympics in St Louis, Missouri.
Basketball’s appeal went around the world and in 1932 eight nations founded the International Basketball Federation.
Four years later, at the Berlin Games, the sport officially became an Olympic event.
The USA took gold, beating Canada 19-8.
In 1937, 13 teams founded the National Basketball League (NBL). Such was its success that a rival league was established nine years later.
The Basketball Association of America (BAA) boasted teams from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit and proved highly successful.
By the end of the 1949 season all the NBL teams had joined the BAA.
A three-division league, which soon became two, was set up and renamed the National Basketball Association (NBA).
The Minneapolis Lakers, led by centre George Mikan and coached by John Kundla, would dominate the new NBA, winning five championship titles in 1949, 1950, 1952 and 1954.
The Boston Celtics dominated the NBA from 1957 to 1969.
The team, coached by “Red” Auerbach, won 11 NBA titles (1957, 1959-1966, 1968 and 1969), including eight consecutively.
The Celtics had many stars, with centre Bill Russell arguably their greatest.
In his 13-season career, Russell averaged 15.1 points per game and 22.5 rebounds per game.
In 1969 the two NBA divisions were renamed the Eastern and Western conferences.
The late 1970s saw organised basketball’s appeal begin to wane – even though the Harlem Globetrotters were still pulling in big crowds and TV audiences with their comic exhibition matches.
NBA ticket sales were down and TV ratings fell away.
But help was just around the corner as Larry Bird and Magic Johnson transformed the sport in the 1980s.
Bird helped revitalise the Boston Celtics, leading them to three NBA titles in 1981, 1984 and 1986.
Johnson, along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, did the same in Los Angeles, guiding the Lakers to five NBA championships.
In the late 1980s the Detroit Pistons – featuring Isiah Thomas and Dennis Rodman – emerged briefly as a dominant force, taking the title in 1989 and 1990.
The past 20 years have produced a host of stars – Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd – but without question the most important figure in the modern era was Michael Jordan, considered by most commentators to be the greatest player of all time.
A born entertainer, Jordan possessed exceptional skills and took the playing and marketing of the game to a new level.
He led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships (1991-1993, 1996-1998) and led the league in scoring a record ten times.
