What Is Basketball?

Hailey Brown
January 28, 2016
P.E. contract

Ever wonder what is basketball? Basketball is a famous sport played today, and played by many. The history goes back quite some time. There are also so many different types of basketball played. There are also many tricks that you can learn by practicing.

What is basketball? Basketball is a sport that you play with two teams of five on a rectangle shaped court.  You shoot the basketball in a hoop that’s 18 inches in diameter and 10 feet high backboard mounted on at each end of the court.  Basketball is a very popular sport. It is one of the world’s most popular and widely viewed sports. The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the most popular and widely considered to be the highest level of professional basketball in the world and NBA players are the world’s best paid sportsmen, by average annual salary per player. The NBA's average player made $5 million per year in the 2010-11 season only. The average MLB player earned only $3.3 million. The NHL average salary drops even more to $2.4 million, while the average NFL player makes “only” $1.9 million per year. NBA players take issue with these figures.

In the NBA there are many teams and players. There are 30 total teams in the NBA. Which include Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans, New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, Toronto Raptors, Utah Jazz and the Washington Wizards.

Basketball has been here for a long time. The history of basketball started when Dr. James Naismith created basketball in 1891 in Springfield. The original rules that he created only contained 13 rules total. The first basketball game was after the rules were published December 21, 1891, and the game was played later that same day. It was played using peach baskets that were closed at the bottom, and you had to retrieve the balls manually. Until a small hole was created in the bottom of the peach basket. In 1906 metal hoops, nets and backboards were created. Earlier the soccer ball was replaced by a Spalding ball, similar to the one we use today.