Post 630
Good news! America DID invent basketball! I know I’ve had a go at America for claiming to have created baseball and bowling, which they didn’t. And I had a go at them for inventing God-awful pool. And I haven’t even delved into America’s number one religion yet, NFL. Which is, basically, a copy of the English game ‘rugby’. But basketball, that most beloved of American sports, well, yes, that IS American! Well, it was invented in America. By a Canadian. But they’re almost American, right? Hey, where’d that flaming arrow come from?
I’m not a fan of basketball, but I can see the attraction. It’s a huge sport in the UK. We did play it in school, but I was never very good at it. Oh, I’m very tall, but I’m not blessed with good health. I can’t really run more than 100 yards without having a heart attack. But I was very good at dribbling. Admittedly, I was dribbling on the floor, out of my mouth, after the aforementioned heart attack, but still…
The aim of the game is simple. Throw a bouncy orange ball into a hoop 10 feet in the air. Two at either end of a court. James Naismith, a Canadian doctor, professor and physical education instructor, invented the game in 1891, in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was trying to find a way to keep his students fit in the harsh winters. The original hoops were 10 feet high because that was the height of the ceiling. These original hoops were actually peach baskets, meaning the referee had to climb a ladder to retrieve the ball. It took the people back then quite a long time before they realised cutting the bottom out was a good idea.
The first official basketball match took place in 1892, with a brown ball, played on a court half the size of today’s courts. It an exhilarating match, just one point was scored.
The reason the backboard was invented was because, originally, games were played in arenas with a balcony behind the hoops, and the people of the age thought it was funny to interfere with the ball as it headed for the hoop. Those cheeky bastards…
The wonderfully named Wilt Chamberlain holds the record for the most points scored in one game, 100 of them, in 1962, whilst playing for Philadelphia against New York. Just as brilliantly named was Mugsy Bogues, the shortest male basketball player, at only five foot three inches tall. Good old Mugsy.
And I’ll tell you something else too, basketball teams have phenomenal names. Over in America, there is the Denver Nuggets, Jackson Showboats, Mid-South Echoes, San Francisco Rumble and Tuscan Buckets. But it’s not just the Americans having some fun. Here in Britain, we have the Brixton Topcats, Derby Trailblazers, Lancashire Spinners, Manchester Magic and Surrey Scorchers. I’d love a match between the Scorchers and the Buckets. So very, very much…
You know what, I quite like basketball. I hate golf because it’s boring. Cricket and tennis because they make no sense. And rugby, because it’s about as difficult to figure out as what women want. The games I like are snooker. A tactical master class. BTCC. Exhilarating, a tad violent, simple to understand. And football. Put a ball in a net. Basketball is all these things. Exiting, tactical, simple and, just like with snooker, BTCC and football, drenched in a colourful and wonderful history.
An American may not have invented it, but they’ve sure made it brilliant.
Ciao :)(:
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