TITLE AND SUBJECT OF ARTICLE

 

Big Names In Basketball

There are many things that people must do, despite what is currently going on in their personal life. The person may be dealing with divorce, illness, or even the death of a family member, yet they still have to go to work or take care of children. There is a former NBA player that most fans consider to be the best player ever in professional basketball. The former player’s name is Michael Jordan, and he was excellent on offense and defense. Michael Jordan played for the Chic...

There are many things that people must do, despite what is currently going on in their personal life. The person may be dealing with divorce, illness, or even the death of a family member, yet they still have to go to work or take care of children. There is a former NBA player that most fans consider to be the best player ever in professional basketball. The former player’s name is Michael Jordan, and he was excellent on offense and defense. Michael Jordan played for the Chicago Bulls, and he helped the Bulls to win six titles.

Unfortunately, despite his talent, things weren’t always great for Michael Jordan. Along with fame and fortune comes heartbreak, just like for everyone else. In 1995, Michael and the Bulls played the season of a lifetime, and were headed to the playoffs once again. But in the middle of everything, something happened that no one had ever expected. Michael Jordan’s dad was shot and killed in his home in North Carolina. Of course this was devastating for Jordan, and he even felt that he couldn’t go on and participate in the playoffs. Miraculously, just when Michael had just about given up, he heard a voice from his father, telling him that he was still with him, no matter what. This made Michael break down in tears, ultimately deciding to go out and win the championship for his dad—and win the championship, he did.

Many of us think that we have problems in our lives that cause us to be unable to go on, but just imagine what NBA players must go through. They have to quickly get themselves together, no matter what happens in their personal lives that affects them in a major way. They have fans and team member who are counting on them, and don’t want to be let down. One thing that people need to realize, though, is that just because they are professional basketball players, doesn’t mean that they aren’t human. NBA players are people, too, and they have feelings and emotions, just like everyone else, and should be allowed an adequate amount of time to mourn the death of a loved one.

For some great National Basketball League material, there is a great website that provides coupons to help you save money, as well as convenient links that lead you directly to the retailers’ website.

 

How Basketball Came To Be...

In early December 1891, Dr. James Naismith, a minister on the faculty of a college for YMCA professionals (today, Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied and at proper levels of fitness during the long New England winters. After rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto an 10-foot (3.05 m) elevated track...

basketball, nba

In early December 1891, Dr. James Naismith, a minister on the faculty of a college for YMCA professionals (today, Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied and at proper levels of fitness during the long New England winters. After rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto an 10-foot (3.05 m) elevated track. In contrast with modern basketball nets, this peach basket retained its bottom, so balls scored into the basket had to be poked out with a long dowel each time. A soccer ball was used to shoot goals.

Dr. Naismith's handwritten diaries of the time indicate that he was nervous about this invention, which incorporated rules from a Canadian children's game called "Duck on a Rock", as many had failed before it. Dr. Naismith himself was originally from Canada.

Naismith's new game is quite similar to the game of team handball, which had already been invented in the early 1890s.

The first official basketball game was played in the YMCA gymnasium on January 20, 1892 with nine players, on a court just half the size of a present-day National Basketball Association (NBA) court. "Basket ball", the name suggested by one of Naismith's students, was popular from the beginning.

Women's basketball began in 1892 at Smith College when Senda Berenson, a physical education teacher, modified Naismith's rules for women.

Basketball's early adherents were dispatched to YMCAs throughout the United States, and it quickly spread through the USA and Canada. By 1895, it was well established at several women's high schools. While the YMCA was responsible for initially developing and spreading the game, within a decade it discouraged the new sport, as rough play and rowdy crowds began to detract from the YMCA's primary mission. However, other amateur sports clubs, colleges, and professional clubs quickly filled the void. In the years before World War I, the Amateur Athletic Union and the Intercollegiate Athletic Association (forerunner of the NCAA) vied for control over the rules for the game.

Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball. The first balls made specifically for basketball were brown, and it was only in the late 1950s that Tony Hinkle, searching for a ball that would be more visible to players and spectators alike, introduced the orange ball that is now in common use.

Dribbling, the bouncing of the ball up and down while moving, was not part of the original game except for the "bounce pass" to teammates. Passing the ball was the primary means of ball movement. Dribbling was eventually introduced but limited by the asymmetric shape of early balls. Dribbling only became a major part of the game around the 1950s as manufacturing improved the ball shape.

Basketball, netball, dodgeball, volleyball, and lacrosse are the only ball games which have been identified as being invented by North Americans. Other ball games, such as baseball and Canadian football, have Commonwealth of Nations, European, Asian or African connections.

 

Basketball For Short People: Basket To Be Lowered

In an effort to return basketball to the widely popular place it held in the hearts and minds of average-size and short Americans before it became the exclusive province of players whose mothers are suspected of stretching them as infants, The National Basketball Association is considering legitimizing a basket height that will allow even really short people to slam-dunk the ball and hang by the hoop to express their delight over a particularly good play. If the sport for shorts catches on, the association may establish an entirely new league.

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Since the 1950s, when short but fast players had a chance of making it onto a professional court – such as the legendary Bob Cousy of the Boston Celtics, known for startling innovations like dribbling and passing behind the back – the sport has been dominated by ever taller athletes, starting with the arrival of Wilt, The Stilt, Chamberlain.

Now, The National Basketball Association has come to realize that the trend to tall has demoralized people of who fall within the usual range of human height and that it has positively devastated short people.

Compared to the slam-dunking ways of the seven footers, these distressed athletes just can’t get people interested in watching them hoop it up. As a result, interest in the game as a participation sport has waned, and the association is concerned that, as fewer people work up their excitement about playing it, fewer of them will pay to see it.

In an effort to return basketball to the widely poplar place it held in the minds and hearts of the American public before it became the exclusive province of players whose mothers are suspected of stretching them as infants, the association is considering legitimizing a court just for people of average height, with a special accommodation for shorter people. The basic plan calls for the basket to be lowered by one foot for players from 5’ 6” to 6’ 6” and two feet for people who are even shorter but still imagine slam-dunking the ball and hanging from the hoop in a celebratory manner.

When the new rules go into effect, virtually everyone will finally be able to play the game in as dramatic a fashion as today’s seven footers.

For now the plan calls for limiting the innovation to amateur players, but the association confides that if fans once again take an interest in watching average-size people play the game, there is the potential to establish an entire new league, made up of speed merchants who are only eye-high to a current pro’s elbows.