Overview
Today, basketball is a major professional indoor sport, as well as an outdoor neighborhood activity joined in by people of all experience levels. However, the game itself is over 100 years old, first invented in 1891 by James Naismith, a clergyman, teacher and doctor from Canada. His supervisor at the YMCA asked him to organize a spirited indoor game for the winter months. Naismith's basketball included aspects of the American sports of soccer, football and hockey. Since then, the game has acquired a strict set of rules and regulations and its own specialized equipment.
Game Overview
Basketball is played by two opposing teams of five players each, who want to add as many scores as possible by shooting a soccer-like ball through a large hoop that stands elevated 10 feet from the ground. This is also called "making a basket." The rectangular playing area is divided into halves and called a court, with a hoop on either end. The game time varies from the professional level to high school games.
Offense and Defense
The two teams try to gain and keep control of the ball and make as many baskets as possible. When doing so, they score points. The five players with the ball is called offense. The other players, who are on the defense, attempt to take the ball from the offense, deflect passing of the ball across the court and baskets being made and catch rebounds.
Playing and Fouls
To get the ball from the basket at one end of the court to the other, the players will either dribble, or bounce, the ball or pass it from one person to another. An infraction of the game rules is called a "foul." There are several different types of fouls, such as fighting with one another on the court, impeding or blocking the movement of a player, and having excessive physical contact against another player.
Scoring
A team gets 2 points when making a basket by jumping up and shooting, laying the ball into the rim, or slamming it through the hoop. Additional single points are scored when making a basket (called a field goal) from the painted arced 3-point line on the court or from free throws for fouls.
Equipment
One of the advantages to the game that Naismith started is that it can be played with minimal equipment and quite inexpensively, including a basketball, with the size based on the age and level of the players, two opposing hoops and backboards behind the hoops.
