basketball summary

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By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see basketball.

basketball, Court game between two teams of five players. They score by tossing, or
“shooting,” an inflated ball through a raised hoop, or “basket,” located in their
opponent’s end of the court. A goal is worth two points, three if shot from outside a
specified limit. A player who is fouled (through unwarranted physical contact) by
another is awarded one to three free-throw attempts (depending on the circumstances
of the foul). A successful free throw is worth one point. Invented in 1891 by James A.
Naismith at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Mass., basketball quickly became
popular throughout the U.S., with games organized at the high school and collegiate
level for both sexes. (For the first game, Naismith used as goals two half-bushel peach
baskets, which gave the sport its name.) Women first played the game under a markedly
different set of rules. The game developed internationally at a slower pace. The first
Olympic basketball contest was held in 1936, and the Fédération Internationale de
Basketball Amateur (FIBA) introduced world championships for men and women in
1950 and 1953, respectively. In the U.S., high school and collegiate championship
tournaments are traditionally held in March and generate considerable excitement. A
men’s professional league was organized in 1898 but did not gain much of a following
until 1949, when it was reconstituted as the National Basketball Association (NBA). The
first women’s professional leagues in the U.S. emerged during the 1970s but failed after
a year or two. The current Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), owned by
the NBA, was organized in 1997. Club and professional basketball outside the U.S.
developed rapidly in the latter part of the 20th century. The Basketball Hall of Fame is
located in Springfield.

How does basketball exercise your body?

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By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Basketball is a dynamic sport that builds stamina from the short sprints required of
running up and down the length of the court. Movements distinct to basketball, such as
jumping to take a shot or to grab a rebound, require frequent muscle contractions,
which can build muscular endurance. Additional weight training is recommended for
basketball players in order to improve their performance on the court.

Should colleges and universities pay college

basketball athletes?
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By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Whether college and university athletes, including basketball players, should be paid is
widely debated. Some argue the NCAA, colleges, and universities profit unfairly and
exorbitantly from the work and likenesses of college athletes, who are risking their
bodies as well as their future careers and earning potential while often living below the
poverty line. Others argue that the scholarships given to student athletes are fair
compensation for their services, especially since so few college athletes actually "go pro,"
and that the real problem is not greater compensation for student-athletes but an
incompetent amateur sports system for feeding talent to professional sports leagues. For
more on the debate over paying college athletes, visit ProCon.org.

U.S. professional basketball

The professional game first prospered largely in the Middle Atlantic and New
England states. Trenton (New Jersey) and the New York Wanderers were the first great
professional clubs, followed by the Buffalo (New York) Germans, who started out in
1895 as 14-year-old members of the Buffalo YMCA and, with occasional new members,
continued for 44 years, winning 792 out of 878 games.

A group of basketball stylists who never received the acclaim they deserved (because in
their heyday they played for various towns) consisted of Edward and Lew Wachter,
Jimmy Williamson, Jack Inglis, and Bill Hardman. They introduced the bounce pass
and long pass as offensive weapons and championed the rule (adopted 1923–24) that
made each player, when fouled, shoot his own free throw.

Before World War II the most widely heralded professional team was the Original
Celtics, which started out in 1915 as a group of youngsters from New York City, kept
adding better players in the early 1920s, and became so invincible that the team
disbanded in 1928, only to regroup in the early 1930s as the New York Celtics. They
finally retired in 1936. The Celtics played every night of the week, twice on Sundays, and
largely on the road. During the 1922–23 season they won 204 of 215 games.

Goose Tatum

Another formidable aggregation was the New York Renaissance (the Rens), organized
by Robert Douglas in 1923 and regarded as the strongest all-Black team of all time.
During the 1925–26 campaign they split a six-game series with the Original Celtics.
During the 1932–33 season the Rens won 88 consecutive games. In 1939 they defeated
the Harlem Globetrotters and the Oshkosh All Stars in the world championship
pro tournament in Chicago. Among the great professional clubs were the teams of Fond
du Lac, Wisconsin, and East Liverpool, Ohio, as well as the New York Nationals, the
Paterson (New Jersey) Crescents, and the South Philadelphia Hebrew All Stars—better
known as the Sphas.

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Basketball Player Nicknames

The first professional league was the National Basketball League (NBL), formed in 1898.
Its game differed from the college game in that a chicken-wire cage typically surrounded
the court, separating players from often hostile fans. (Basketball players were long
referred to as cagers.) The chicken wire was soon replaced with a rope netting, off which
the players bounced like prizefighters in a boxing ring. The cage also kept the ball from
going out-of-bounds, thus quickening the pace of play. In these early days players were
also permitted to resume dribbling after halting. Despite the lively action of the game,
the NBL and other early leagues were short-lived, mostly because of the frequent
movement of players, who sold their services on a per-game basis. With players
performing for several cities or clubs within the same season, the leagues suffered games
of unreliable quality and many financially unstable franchises.

The Great Depression of the 1930s hurt professional basketball, and a new NBL was
organized in 1937 in and around the upper Midwest. Professional basketball assumed
major league status with the organization of the new Basketball Association of America
(BAA) in 1946 under the guidance of Walter A. Brown, president of the Boston Garden.
Brown contended that professional basketball would succeed only if there were
sufficient financial support to nurse the league over the early lean years, if the game
emphasized skill instead of brawling, and if all players were restricted to contracts with
a reserve rule protecting each team from raiding by another club. Following a costly
two-year feud, the BAA and the NBL merged in 1949 to form the National Basketball
Association (NBA).

To help equalize the strength of the teams, the NBA established an annual college draft
permitting each club to select a college senior in inverse order to the final standings in
the previous year’s competition, thus enabling the lower-standing clubs to select the
more talented collegians. In addition, the game was altered through three radical rule
changes in the 1954–55 season:

1. A team must shoot for a basket within 24 seconds after acquiring possession of the ball.

2. A bonus free throw is awarded to a player anytime the opposing team commits more than
six (later five, now four) personal fouls in a quarter or more than two personal fouls in an
overtime period.

3. Two free throws are granted for any backcourt foul.

After a struggle to survive, including some large financial losses and several short-lived
franchises, the NBA took its place as the major professional basketball league in
the United States. A rival 11-team American Basketball Association (ABA), with George
Mikan as commissioner, was launched in the 1967–68 season, and a bitter feud
developed with the NBA for the top collegiate talent each season. In 1976 the ABA
disbanded, and four of its teams were taken into the NBA.

The NBA grew increasingly popular through the 1980s. Attendance records were broken
in that decade by most of the franchises, a growth pattern stimulated at least in part by
the increased coverage by cable television. The NBA has a total of 30 teams organized
into Eastern and Western conferences and further divided into six divisions. In the
Eastern Conference the Atlantic Division comprises the Boston Celtics, the Brooklyn
Nets, the New York Knicks, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Toronto Raptors; the Central
Division is made up of the Chicago Bulls, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Detroit Pistons,
the Indiana Pacers, and the Milwaukee Bucks; the Southeast Division comprises
the Atlanta Hawks, the Charlotte Hornets, the Miami Heat, the Orlando Magic, and
the Washington Wizards. In the Western Conference the Southwest Division comprises
the Texas-based Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, and San Antonio Spurs,
the Memphis Grizzlies, and the New Orleans Pelicans; the Northwest Division is made
up of the Denver Nuggets, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Oklahoma City Thunder,
the Portland Trail Blazers, and the Utah Jazz; the Pacific Division comprises
the Phoenix Suns and the California-based Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles
Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, and Sacramento Kings. The play-offs follow the traditional
82-game schedule, involving 16 teams and beginning in late April. Played as a best-of-
seven series, the final pairings stretch into late June.

Although basketball is traditionally a winter game, the NBA still fills its arenas and
attracts a national television audience in late spring and early summer. As the
popularity of the league grew, player salaries rose to an annual average of more than $5
million by mid-2000s, and some superstars earned more than $20 million yearly. The
NBA has a salary cap that limits (at least theoretically, as loopholes allow many teams to
exceed the cap) the total amount a team can spend on salaries in any given season.

In 2001 the NBA launched the National Basketball Development League (NBDL). The
league served as a kind of “farm system” for the NBA. Through its first 50 years the NBA
did not have an official system of player development or a true minor league system for
bringing up young and inexperienced players such as exists in major league baseball.
College basketball has been the area from which the NBA did the vast majority of its
recruiting. By 2000 this had begun to change somewhat, as players began to be drafted
straight out of high school with increasing frequency. In 2005 the NBA instituted a
rule stipulating that domestic players must be at least age 19 and have been out of high
school for one year to be eligible for the draft, which in effect required players to spend
at least one year in college or on an international professional team before coming to the
NBA.
U.S. women’s basketball
Clara Baer, who introduced basketball at the H. Sophie Newcomb College for Women in
New Orleans, influenced the women’s style of play with her set of women’s rules,
published in 1895. On receiving a diagram of the court from Naismith, Baer mistook
dotted lines, indicating the areas in which players might best execute team play, to be
restraining lines, with the result that the forwards, centres, and guards were confined to
specified areas. This seemed appropriate because many felt that the men’s game was too
strenuous for women.

Women’s rules over the years frequently have been modified. Until 1971 there were six
players on a team, and the court was so divided that the three forwards played in the
frontcourt and did all the scoring while the three guards covered the backcourt. Senda
Berenson staged the first women’s college basketball game in 1893 when her freshman
and sophomore Smith College women played against one another. In April 1895 the
women of the University of California (Berkeley) played Stanford University. Despite a
multitude of hindrances (such as being thought unladylike), women’s basketball
gradually secured a foothold. In 1971, when women’s rules were changed to reduce the
number on a team from six players to five and women were freed from the
limits imposed by the half-court game, the level of individual skills and competition
quickly rose.

2006 NCAA women's basketball national championship game

In the early 1980s control of the women’s college game was shifted from the Association
for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) to the NCAA, a move that not only
streamlined the operation and made it more efficient but also added to the visibility of
women’s basketball. The women’s NCAA championship tournament runs concurrently
with the men’s, and many of the games are nationally televised. Women’s basketball
became an Olympic sport in 1976.

Individual women stars have been heavily recruited by colleges, but the players
frequently found that there was no opportunity for them to play beyond the college level.
Leagues were occasionally formed, such as the Women’s Professional Basketball League
(WPBL); begun in 1978, the WPBL lasted only three years. Eventually filling the void
was the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). Aligned with the powerful
NBA, the WNBA held its inaugural season in 1997 with eight teams. By 2006 the WNBA
had grown to 14 teams, though following the season the Charlotte Sting disbanded, and
in 2008 the WNBA’s inaugural champion, the Houston Comets, also folded.
The Sacramento Monarchs disbanded in 2009. The Eastern Conference consists of the
Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun (in Uncasville), Indiana Fever (in
Indianapolis), New York Liberty (in New York City), and Washington (D.C.) Mystics.
The Western Conference comprises the Los Angeles Sparks, Minnesota Lynx (in
Minneapolis), Phoenix Mercury, San Antonio Silver Stars, Seattle Storm, and Tulsa
(Oklahoma) Shock. Women’s professional basketball is played during the summer
months.
International competition

Anne Donovan

The success of international basketball was greatly advanced by Forrest C. (“Phog”)

Allen, a Naismith disciple and a former coach at the University of Kansas, who led the
movement for the inclusion of basketball in the Olympic Games in 1936 and thereafter.
Basketball has also been played in the Pan-American Games since their inauguration in
1951. The international game is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Basketball
Amateur (FIBA). World championships began in 1950 for men and in 1953 for women.
(The men’s tournament was renamed the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2014.) Under
international rules the court differs in that there is no frontcourt or backcourt, and the
free throw lanes form a modified wedge shape. There are some differences in rules,
including those governing substitutions, technical and personal fouls, free throws,
intermissions, and time-outs. Outside the United States there are few places that strictly
separate amateur from professional athletes.

Basketball has caught on particularly well in Italy. The Italian professional basketball
league (Lega Basket) is highly regarded and popular in that country. Spain also has
several basketball leagues, the main one being the ACB (Asociación de Clubes de
Baloncesto). The other major centre of European basketball is eastern Europe,
particularly the Balkans. Although the European leagues are not formally aligned with
the American NBA, there are links between European and American basketball. It is not
uncommon for European players to be drafted by the NBA, nor is it uncommon for
American players to play in Europe. American players in the European leagues tend to
be older players who have finished successful NBA careers in the United States or
younger players who have not yet been drafted into the NBA.
Play of the game
Court and equipment
The standard American basketball court is in the shape of a rectangle 50 feet (15.2
metres) by 94 feet (28.7 metres); high school courts may be slightly smaller. There are
various markings on the court, including a centre circle, free throw lanes, and a three-
point line, that help regulate play. A goal, or basket, 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter is
suspended from a backboard at each end of the court. The metal rim of the basket is 10
feet (3 metres) above the floor. In the professional game the backboard is a rectangle, 6
feet (1.8 metres) wide and 3.5 feet (1.1 metres) high, made of a transparent material,
usually glass; it may be 4 feet (1.2 metres) high in college. The international court varies
somewhat in size and markings. The spherical inflated ball measures 29.5 to 30 inches
(74.9 to 76 cm) in circumference and weighs 20 to 22 ounces (567 to 624 grams). Its
covering is leather or composition.
Rules
The rules governing play of the game are based on Naismith’s five principles requiring a
large, light ball, handled with the hands; no running with the ball; no player being
restricted from getting the ball when it is in play; no personal contact; and a horizontal,
elevated goal. The rules are spelled out in specific detail by the governing bodies of the
several branches of the sport and cover the playing court and equipment, officials,
players, scoring and timing, fouls, violations, and other matters. The officials include a
referee and two umpires in college play (two referees and a crew chief in NBA play), two
timers, and two scorekeepers. One player on each team acts as captain and speaks for
the team on all matters involving the officials, such as interpretation of rules.
Professional, international, and high school games are divided into four periods, college
games into two.

Since the 1895–96 season, a field goal has scored two points and a free throw one point.
When the ABA was founded in 1967, it allowed three points for shots made from outside
a boundary line set 25 feet (7.6 metres) from the basket. With varying distances, the
change was adopted officially by the NBA in 1979 and, in 1985, by colleges.

Basketball is a rough sport, although it is officially a noncontact game. A player may

pass or bounce (dribble) the ball to a position whereby he or a teammate may try for a
basket. A foul is committed whenever a player makes such contact with an opponent as
to put him at a disadvantage; for the 2001–02 season the NBA approved a rule change
that eliminated touch fouls, meaning brief contact initiated by a defensive player is
allowable if it does not impede the progress of the offensive player. If a player is fouled
while shooting and the shot is good, the basket counts and he is awarded one free throw
(an unhindered throw for a goal from behind the free throw, or foul, line, which is 15
feet [4.6 metres] from the backboard); if the shot misses, he gets a second free throw. If
a foul is committed against a player who is not shooting, then his team is awarded either
the possession of the ball or a free throw if the other team is in a penalty situation. A
team is in a penalty situation when it has been called for a set number of fouls in one
period (five in one quarter in professional and international play and seven in one half
in the college game). In college basketball, penalty free throws are “one-and-one” in
nature (consisting of one free throw that, if made, is followed by a second) until the
opposing team commits a 10th foul in a half, creating a “double bonus” situation where
all fouls automatically result in two free throws. A pair of penalty free throws are
immediately earned when teams enter the penalty situation in both the NBA and
international play. Infractions such as unsportsmanlike conduct or grasping the rim are
technical fouls, which award to the opposition a free throw and possession of the ball.
Overly violent fouls are called flagrant fouls and also result in free throws and
possession for the opposition. Players are allowed a set number of personal fouls per
game (six in the NBA, five in most other competitions) and are removed from the game
when the foul limit is reached.

Other common infractions occur when a player (with the ball) takes an excessive
number of steps or slides; fails to advance the ball within five seconds while being
“closely guarded”; causes the ball to go out-of-bounds; steps over the foul line while
shooting a free throw; steps over the end line or sideline while tossing the ball in to a
teammate, or fails to pass the ball in within five seconds; runs with, kicks, or strikes the
ball with his fist; dribbles a second time after having once concluded his dribble (double
dribble); remains more than three seconds in his free throw lane while he or his team
has the ball; causes the ball to go into the backcourt; retains the ball in the backcourt
more than 10 seconds, changed in the NBA to 8 seconds for 2001–02; or fails to shoot
within the time allotted by the shot clock (24 seconds in the NBA, the WNBA, and
international play; 30 in women’s college basketball; and 35 in men’s college
basketball). The penalty is loss of the ball—opponents throw the ball in from the side.

Common terms used in basketball include the following:

Blocking
Any illegal personal contact that impedes the progress of an opponent who does not
have the ball.
Dribble
Ball movement by bouncing the ball. A dribble ends when a player touches the ball with
both hands simultaneously or does not continue his dribble.
Held ball
Called when two opponents have one or two hands so firmly upon the ball that neither
can gain possession without undue roughness. It also is called when a player in the
frontcourt is so closely guarded that he cannot pass or try for a goal or is obviously
withholding the ball from play.

Jump ball
A method of putting the ball into play. The referee tosses the ball up between two
opponents who try to tap it to a teammate. The jump ball is used to begin games and, in
the professional game, when the ball is possessed by two opposing players at the same
time.
Pass
Throwing, batting, or rolling the ball to another player. The main types are (1) the chest
pass, in which the ball is released from a position in front of the chest, (2) the bounce
pass, in which the ball is bounced on the floor to get it past a defensive opponent, (3) the
roll pass on the floor, (4) the hook pass (side or overhead), and (5) the baseball pass, in
which the ball is thrown a longer distance with one hand in a manner similar to a
baseball throw.
Pivot
A movement in which a player with the ball steps once or more in any direction with the
same foot while the other foot (pivot foot) is kept at its point of contact with the floor.
Pivot player
Another term for centre; also called a post player. He may begin the offensive set from a
position just above the free throw line.
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Rebounding
Both teams attempting to gain possession of the ball after any try for a basket that is
unsuccessful, but the ball does not go out-of-bounds and remains in play.
Screen, or pick
Legal action of a player who, without causing more than incidental contact, delays or
prevents an opponent from reaching his desired position.
Shots from the field
One of the main field shots is the layup, in which the shooter, while close to the basket,
jumps and lays the ball against the backboard so it will rebound into the basket or just
lays it over the rim. Away from the basket, players use a one-hand push shot from a
stride, jump, or standing position and a hook shot, which is overhead. Some players can
dunk or slam-dunk the ball, jamming the ball down into the basket.
Traveling (walking with the ball)
Progressing in any direction in excess of the prescribed limits, normally two steps, while
holding the ball.
Turnover
Loss of possession of the ball by a team through error or a rule violation.

Other special terms are discussed below.

Principles of play
Each team of five players consists of two forwards, two guards, and a centre, usually the
tallest man on the team. At the beginning of the first period of a game, the ball is put
into play by a jump ball at centre court; i.e., the referee tosses the ball up between the
opposing centres, higher than either can jump, and when it descends each tries to tap it
to one of his teammates, who must remain outside the centre circle until the ball is
tapped. Subsequent periods of professional and college games begin with a throw in
from out-of-bounds. Jump balls are also signaled by the officials when opposing players
share possession of the ball (held ball) or simultaneously cause it to go out-of-bounds.
In U.S. college games the alternate-possession rule is invoked in jump ball situations,
with teams taking turns getting possession. After each successful basket (field goal) the
ball is put back in play by the team that is scored on, by one player passing the ball in
from behind the end line where the score was made. The ball is put in play in the same
manner after a successful free throw or, if two have been awarded, after the second if it
is successful. After nonshooting violations the ball is awarded to the opposing team to be
passed inbounds from a point designated by an official.

A player who takes possession of the ball must pass or shoot before taking two steps or
must start dribbling before taking his second step. When the dribble stops, the player
must stop his movement and pass or shoot the ball. The ball may be tapped or batted
with the hands, passed, bounced, or rolled in any direction.

As basketball has progressed, various coaches and players have devised intricate plays
and offensive maneuvers. Some systems emphasize speed, deft ball handling, and high
scoring; others stress ball control, slower patterned movement, and lower scoring. A
strategy based on speed is called the fast break. When fast-break players recover
possession of the ball in their backcourt, as by getting the rebound from an opponent’s
missed shot, they race upcourt using a combination of speed and passing and try to
make a field goal before the opponents have time to set up a defense.

Some teams, either following an overall game plan or as an alternative when they do not
have the opportunity for a fast break, employ a more deliberate style of offense. The
guards carefully bring the ball down the court toward the basket and maintain
possession of the ball in the frontcourt by passing and dribbling and by screening
opponents in an effort to set up a play that will free a player for an open shot. Set
patterns of offense generally use one or two pivot, or post, players who play near the free
throw area at the low post positions (within a few feet of the basket) or at high post
positions (near the free throw line). The pivot players are usually the taller players on
the team and are in position to receive passes, pass to teammates, shoot, screen for
teammates, and tip in or rebound (recover) missed shots. All the players on the team are
constantly on the move, executing the patterns designed to give one player a favourable
shot—and at the same time place one or more teammates in a good position to tip in or
rebound if that player misses.

Systems of defense also have developed over the years. One of the major strategies is
known as man-to-man. In this system each player guards a specific opponent, except
when “switching” with a teammate when he is screened or in order to guard another
player in a more threatening scoring position. Another major strategy is the zone, or
five-man, defense. In this system each player has a specific area to guard irrespective of
which opponent plays in that area. The zone is designed to keep the offense from driving
in to the basket and to force the offense into taking long shots.

A great many variations and combinations have been devised to employ the several
aspects of both man-to-man and zone defensive strategies. The press, which can be
either man-to-man or zone, is used by a team to guard its opponent so thoroughly that
the opposition is forced to hurry its movements and especially to commit errors that
result in turnovers. A full-court press applies this pressure defense from the moment the
opposition takes possession of the ball at one end of the court. Well-coached teams are
able to modify both their offensive and defensive strategies according to the shifting
circumstances of the game and in response to their opponents’ particular strengths and
weaknesses and styles of play.