10 Basketball Curiosities

1. IT BEGAN AS A RESPONSE TO PRACTICING AN INDOOR SPORT

In 1891, the physical education teacher at the YMCA of Springfield (Massachusetts, USA) called James Naismith, was looking for a sport that could be practiced during the winter indoors, since the winters in that area made it difficult to practice sports outdoors. 

Naismith remembered a game from his childhood, the "duck-on-a-rock" game, which consisted of trying to reach an object placed on a rock by throwing a stone at it.

Naismith got some peach baskets of 50cm. of diameter and hung them on some railings in the gym. 

At first he used a European soccer ball and he called it "Naismith-ball". Later he renamed it as we all know today: basketball.

Since Naismith had 18 students, he decided that the teams would be made up of 9 players each. Later, the number of players was reduced, first to 7 and finally to the current 5 (1897).

Women's basketball started a year later, in 1892, at the Smith College, when Senda Berenson, a physical education teacher, modified Naismith's rules to adapt them to the needs of women.