Editing Basketball (section)

===Creation===
[[File:James Naismith at Springfield College circa 1920.jpg|thumb|170px|[[James Naismith]] {{c.|1920}}]]
In December 1891, [[James Naismith]], a Canadian-American professor of [[physical education]] and instructor at the International [[YMCA|Young Men's Christian Association]] Training School (now [[Springfield College]]) in [[Springfield, Massachusetts]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ymca.int/who-we-are/history/basketball-a-ymca-invention/ |title=YMCA International – World Alliance of YMCAs: Basketball : a YMCA Invention |website=www.ymca.int |access-date=March 22, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314065438/http://www.ymca.int/who-we-are/history/basketball-a-ymca-invention/ |archive-date=March 14, 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> was trying to keep his gym class active on a rainy day.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/inventions/inventions.html |title=The Greatest Canadian Invention |work=CBC News |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101203114542/http://www.cbc.ca/inventions/inventions.html |archive-date=December 3, 2010}}</ref> He 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 invented a new game in which players would pass a ball to teammates and try to score points by tossing the ball into a basket mounted on a wall. 

[[File:Firstbasketball.jpg|thumb|left|170px|The first basketball court at [[Springfield College]]]]
Naismith wrote the basic [[rules of basketball|rules]] and nailed a [[peach]] basket onto an elevated track. Naismith initially set up the peach basket with its bottom intact, which meant that the ball had to be retrieved manually after each "basket" or point scored. This quickly proved tedious, so Naismith removed the bottom of the basket to allow the balls to be poked out with a long [[dowel]] after each scored basket.

Shortly after, [[Senda Berenson Abbott|Senda Berenson]], instructor of physical culture at the nearby [[Smith College]], went to Naismith to learn more about the game.<ref name="Pioneers in Physical Education" /> Fascinated by the new sport and the values it could teach, she started to organize games with her pupils, following adjusted rules.<ref name="Senda Berenson Papers" /> The first official women's interinstitutional game was played barely 11 months later, between the [[University of California, Berkeley|University of California]] and the Miss Head's School.<ref name="Jenkins" /> In 1899, a committee was established at the Conference of Physical Training in Springfield to draw up general rules for women's basketball. Thus, the sport quickly spread throughout America's schools, colleges and universities with uniform rules for both sexes.<ref name="Berenson1901">{{Cite book |last=Berenson |first=Senda |url=https://archive.org/details/linebasketballor00bere |title=Basket Ball for Women |publisher=American Sports Publishing Company, New York |year=1901 |quote=}}</ref>

[[File:Basketball historic.tif|thumb|150px|The first basketballs used were association footballs]]
Basketball was originally played with a [[ball (association football)|soccer ball]]. These round balls from "[[association football]]" were made, at the time, with a set of laces to close off the hole needed for inserting the inflatable bladder after the other sewn-together segments of the ball's cover had been flipped outside-in.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/store/leather-head-naismith-style-lace-up-basketball-14320.html Leather Head Naismith Style Lace Up Basketball] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911090256/https://www.nytimes.com/store/leather-head-naismith-style-lace-up-basketball-14320.html |date=September 11, 2016 }} (The New York Times. Retrieved August 28, 2016)</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKf4s9cOKRQ&t=104 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717093710/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKf4s9cOKRQ&gl=US&hl=en |archive-date=July 17, 2012 |title=Passion Drives Creation – Jeep® & USA Basketball |last=Jeep |date=July 16, 2012 |via=YouTube}}</ref> These laces could cause bounce passes and dribbling to be unpredictable.<ref>[https://patents.google.com/patent/US1660378 Inflatable ball, Inventor: Frank Dieterle, Patent: US 1660378 A (1928)]  The description in this patent explains problems caused by lacing on the cover of basketballs.</ref> Eventually a lace-free ball construction method was invented, and this change to the game was endorsed by Naismith (whereas in [[American football]], the lace construction proved to be advantageous for gripping and remains to this day). The first balls made specifically for basketball were brown, and it was only in the late 1950s that [[Paul D. "Tony" Hinkle|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 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.{{dubious|date=January 2019}} Dribbling was common by 1896, with a rule against the double dribble by 1898.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Naismith |first1=James |title=Basketball : its origin and development |date=1941 |publisher=Association Press |location=New York}}</ref>

The peach baskets were used until 1906 when they were finally replaced by metal hoops with backboards. A further change was soon made, so the ball merely passed through. Whenever a person got the ball in the basket, their team would gain a point. Whichever team got the most points won the game.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.naismithmuseum.com/naismith_drjamesnaismith/main_drjamesnaismith.htm |access-date=February 14, 2007 |date=February 14, 2007 |title=James Naismith Biography |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205045627/http://www.naismithmuseum.com/naismith_drjamesnaismith/main_drjamesnaismith.htm |archive-date=February 5, 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The baskets were originally nailed to the mezzanine balcony of the playing court, but this proved impractical when spectators in the balcony began to interfere with shots. The backboard was introduced to prevent this interference; it had the additional effect of allowing rebound shots.<ref>Thinkquest, [https://web.archive.org/web/20050318090722/http://library.thinkquest.org/10480/b-ball.html Basketball]. Retrieved January 20, 2009.</ref> Naismith's handwritten diaries, discovered by his granddaughter in early 2006, indicate that he was nervous about the new game he had invented, which incorporated rules from a children's game called [[duck on a rock]], as many had failed before it.<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 14, 2006 |title=Newly found documents shed light on basketball's birth |url=https://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=2660882 |access-date=July 29, 2022 |website=ESPN.com |language=en}}</ref>

Frank Mahan, one of the players from the original first game, approached Naismith after the Christmas break, in early 1892, asking him what he intended to call his new game. Naismith replied that he had not thought of it because he had been focused on just getting the [[game]] started. Mahan suggested that it be called "Naismith ball", at which he laughed, saying that a name like that would kill any game. Mahan then said, "Why not call it basketball?" Naismith replied, "We have a basket and a ball, and it seems to me that would be a good name for it."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/programme/index_uk.asp?SportCode=BK |title=Basketball |website=olympic.org |date=June 26, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090920205645/http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/programme/index_uk.asp?SportCode=BK |archive-date=September 20, 2009 |access-date=December 18, 2005}}{{dubious|date=January 2021|reason the accessdate & archivedate are before the publication date}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=2660882 |title=Newly found documents shed light on basketball's birth |access-date=January 11, 2007 |date=November 13, 2006 |agency=Associated Press |publisher=ESPN |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071201225936/http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2660882 |archive-date=December 1, 2007}}</ref> The first official game was played in the [[Young Men's Christian Association Building (Albany, New York)|YMCA gymnasium in Albany]], New York, on January 20, 1892, with nine players. The game ended at 1–0; the shot was made from {{convert|25|ft|m}}, on a court just half the size of a present-day [[Streetball]] or [[National Basketball Association]] (NBA) court.

At the time, [[Association football|soccer]] was being played with 10 to a team (which was increased to 11). When winter weather got too icy to play soccer, teams were taken indoors, and it was convenient to have them split in half and play basketball with five on each side. By 1897–98, teams of five became standard.