James Naismith was a physical education teacher. In 1891 he invented basketball. Basketball began in Springfield, Massachusetts. It began at a YMCA training school. It was made up as a game to play indoors in the winter.

Basketball is played by two teams. Five players from each team are on the court. Players score by getting the ball into the hoop. The hoop is also called the basket. A basket made from inside the three-point line counts two points. A basket made from outside the line counts three points. A successful free throw counts one point.

The first basketball hoops, in 1891, were peach baskets. A basketball hoop is 10 feet above the floor. The first peach-basket hoops hung 10 feet up too. The first games used a soccer ball.

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. A person stood by each basket. That person got the ball back out after a goal.

The game spread quickly from Springfield to other schools and YMCAs. Senda Berenson was a teacher at Smith College. She changed the rules for women. She ran the first women's college basketball game.

Basketball became an Olympic sport for men at the 1936 Games in Berlin, Germany.

The league that became the NBA began in 1946. It began as the Basketball Association of America. It took the name NBA in 1949. Its first game was played on November 1, 1946, in Toronto. The New York Knickerbockers beat the Toronto Huskies, 68-66.

An NBA game has four periods of 12 minutes, which is 48 minutes in all. Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in one NBA game on March 2, 1962.

A backboard is a rectangle six feet wide and three and a half feet tall. The free throw line is 15 feet from the backboard.

In the NBA, a team with the ball has 24 seconds to try a shot. The NBA added the 24-second shot clock for the 1954-55 season. Only eight teams were left. The clock was added to make play faster.

Words to know

• invented: made up
• rules: how to play
• league: group of teams
• backboard: board behind hoop
• periods: part of game

The short version

Basketball was invented by a teacher named James Naismith in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts. It is played by two teams with five players each on the court. Players score by getting the ball into a hoop 10 feet above the floor. The NBA added its 24-second shot clock for the 1954-55 season.

Quick facts

• A teacher named James Naismith invented basketball in 1891.
• The first basketball hoops, in 1891, were peach baskets.
• A basket from inside the three-point line counts two points, and from outside the line counts three points.
• An NBA game has four periods of 12 minutes, which is 48 minutes in all.
• The league that became the NBA began in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America.