Interesting facts about basketball

James Naismith a Canadian citizen is the man behind the concept of basketball or rather he is the man who came up with this sport. This he did this in the year 1891 during December when he was asked to come up with a sport that would keep his students busy during cold winter. During his childhood, he would play a game that was known as Duck on a Rock and this helped him come up with basketball similar to that but highly modified. This is a game that is interesting and played until today.

 

5 interesting facts about basketball

 

1. Has many injuries than any other sport

A sprained ankle is the most evident and prevalent injury in basketball. Other injuries are like knee inflammation which is not common but with that kind of injury, a player is forced to miss a game or many other games. Sports like football, rugby, hockey indoor games like table tennis, chess none of the players in these games acquire as many injuries compared to those players that play basketball. This doesn’t mean that those other sports do not have injuries, they do but those of basketball overrules the rest.

2. Was played in cages of chicken

This time was in the early 1900s when players were subjected to play in the cages of chicken that were made using wire and mesh. The reason behind them playing inside these cages was to prevent the players from injuring the spectators through their many falls during the game time. Before these cages, they would fall in the spectator seats and injure them hence these cages were made as a countermeasure. Most of the players too were not exceptional as they also acquired fatal injuries.

3. A team was initially made of 9 players

The class of James Naismith was made up of 18 students and so to make two teams he split the class into two. This became the first number of a team that’s 9.Depending on the playing area the number became less by two and 7 players made a team, however, two years later after the discovery of the game, the number of platers was officially stipulated to 5 players which have remained so till today.

4. Basketball word originated from peach baskets

When the game was invented the recent string net goals were not in existence. The first goals to be used were peach baskets or the fruit baskets which forced the officials of the game to take the ball out of the baskets after every score made. Later on, the bottoms of the baskets were removed and through these peach baskets, the sport got its name from and from that time ever since the word basketball became known and widely used.

5. Soccer balls were initially used to play

Early basketball players used a football ball or soccer ball since the game had not had its invented ball. They threw this ball into the peach baskets that were placed on opposite sides of the basketball pitch. This, however, was not to remain so for long since three years down the invention of the sport that when the basketball ball was made. In 1894 a ball that was four inches bigger than a soccer ball was made and also it was made of leather with laces that held it together.