Two teams play basketball. Each team has five players on the court. A player scores by getting the ball into the hoop. The hoop is also called the basket.

A basket from inside the three-point line counts two points. A basket from outside the line counts three points.

A free throw counts one point.

A hoop is 10 feet above the floor. The first hoops, in 1891, were peach baskets. They hung 10 feet up too.

The first basketball games used a soccer ball.

James Naismith was a physical education teacher. In 1891 he invented basketball as a game to play indoors in the winter.

Basketball began in Springfield, Massachusetts. It began at a YMCA training school.

Naismith wrote 13 rules for the new game. In the first games a player could not run with the ball. He had to throw it from the spot where it was caught.

In the first games a person stood by each basket. That person got the ball back out after a goal.

The game spread quickly from Springfield. It went to other schools and YMCAs.

Words to know

• hoop: a ring
• points: the score
• invented: made up
• rules: how to play