ROM Reporters: Basketball and Dr. James NaismithAs you may know, basketball was created by James Nai

ROM Reporters: Basketball and Dr. James NaismithAs you may know, basketball was created by James Naismith. He created the game of basketball for young athletes to play during days with cold weather. He used a peach basket for the basket and a soccer ball for the ball. A team would have nine players and would try to throw the ball in the basket to get a point. Player’s only options on offense were to pass or shoot, as they had not yet invented dribbling. On defense, player’s only options were to intercept passes and to block shots. When the ball went out of bounds, the player that touched the ball first would get possession and throw the ball in. When a player scores, a janitor would grab a ladder, climb up and get the ball. It was a slow process so, after a while, the bottoms of the peach baskets were removed.The first basketball game was played on March 11, 1892. That day, James Naismith asked his class to play a match. It was 9 versus 9. The players all jumped for the ball and started tackling each other. There were students that received black eyes, one with a separated shoulder and one even got knocked out. It was a free for all. Naismith then added new rules to make the game much safer and they redid the game. At the end of the game, the final score was 1-0. As mentioned earlier, retrieving the ball was a slow process, until they added a small hole to the bottom of the basket so someone could poke the ball out with a stick. Later in 1906, they added metal hoops, a net, and a backboard. They also added a Spalding basketball instead of using a soccer ball.On June 6, 1946, the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League combined to create the NBA (National Basketball Association). 30 teams compete to win the title. Many great players have made the NBA much more popular than it had been before. Michael Jordan helped make the NBA more popular by creating the dream team and winning the 1992 Olympics title. Yao Ming made the NBA more popular to Asian countries by being the first Asian basketball player to get the #1 draft pick in the 2002 draft. Many other players have changed the game of basketball and made it much more popular by creating amazing teams or duos that helped them win back-to-back NBA titles. All those ideas greatly increased the popularity of the NBA.James Naismith was born on November 6th, 1861 in Almonte, Ontario and died on November 28th, 1939 in Lawrence, Kansas. He was a very gifted gym student. Naismith was a University gym teacher and the founder and coach of the University of Kansas; unfortunately, he wasn’t a very successful coach. He also invented American football helmets.To learn more about our journey discovering the ROM, check out our posts from previous years using the links below:You can catch all of our blogs right here on Tumblr! Check out stories from our 2015, 2016, and 2017 groups HERE!ROM Reporters is an introductory journalism camp run at the Royal Ontario Museum for teens. ROM Reporters blogs, snaps, and tweets their way through their adventures in science and history!By Andrew of ROM Reporters. Last update: August 24, 2018. -- source link

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