In a basketball scoreboards feature, we will look at the history of basketball in the US.
Basketball was invented in the late 1800s by the Canadian born James Naismith. He did this in response to the YMCA, who wanted an interesting form of indoor entertainment that could be played all year round. Initially, the game was played with 9 players per team, there was a peach basket instead of hoops, and the ball was smaller and similar to a soccer ball.

The all-dominant NBA was not formed until 1946, and it took it a while to become successful. There were a few early stars and competitive games were held, but the sport did not get much exposure. It took more than 15 years for the popularity of the game to explode and for the league to expand. The basketball scoreboards showed that Bill Russel was the first great star, and he lead his team the Boston Celtics to no less than eight consecutive championships.

The popularity of basketball reached present day levels only in the late 70’s, largely due largely to the match-up between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the 1979 NCAA game. Johnson’s Michigan State defeated Bird’s Indiana State team, but after that the two greats went on to play for the Celtics and Lakers. Their tremendous rivalry during the 80’s, as their teams battled for the NBA crown, was a tremendous advert for the sport, and helped fuel further interest in it. This was the time when the game started to become massively commercialized, and players began earning huge sums of money. The sums of money shelled out for TV right and sponsorship deals went through the roof, as did admission prices.

Possibly the finest NBA player ever, Michael Jordan, won the NBA 6 times with his team the Chicago Bulls in the 90s, and by then basketball had taken its position as possibly the number one US sport. Although the game was invented in North America, its has become popular in Europe and every other continent of the world. It truly is now a worldwide game, perhaps second only to soccer.

The rules of the game have been refined over the years. It did not take long for the number of players per team to be cut to 5, and for the baskets to be replaced by the current day hoops with netting. Although the 3-point shot was used in the American Basketball Association league, it was not used in the NBA until 1979 and in the NCAA until 1980. The introduction of this three point shot significantly changed the game. It gave the chance for long-range specialists to emerge and shine, and put a lot more emphasis in training on long range shooting for all players.

For more information, go to:
en.wikipedia.org