The history of basketball can be complicated to follow, but it all traces back to James Naismith in the winter of 1891. Naismith, a physical education instructor at Springfield College in Springfield, Mass., invented a game that requires players to sink a small ball, oftentimes a soccer ball, into an elevated peachbasket. School officials had instructed Naismith to invent a game to occupy his students during the winter, as they could not go outside to play their normal sports of football and baseball. They needed a game that could easily be played inside. Just twenty days after first conceptualizing the game, Naismith had a group of his students play his newly-founded basketball game.
Just four years after Naismith invented the game, the first official collegiate basketball game took place in Iowa City, Iowa, over 1,100 miles away. The game, between the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa, ended with Chicago defeating Iowa, 15-12. The game was the first of its kind, with five players on each team playing at once, just like it is done today. The game drew 500 spectators and launched basketball into the world, where it would become increasingly popular. Shortly after, the first professional basketball league, the National Basketball League (NBL) was established, consisting of six teams. The teams continued to play using a peach basket, until a more permanent solution was found utilizing a metal rim and wooden backboard.
The sport dwindled during World War One, but began to regain speed before World War Two. The International Basketball Federation was formed and included teams from eight different countries. After World War Two, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) was founded, which would later serve as one of the predecessors of today’s National Basketball Association (NBA), the professional basketball league in the United States and Canada. The NBL and BAA merged to form the NBA in 1949. From there, basketball truly became a national success. Prior to the 1953 season, the DuMont Television Network purchased the rights to broadcast 13 games throughout the season on television for $39,000. For the first time ever, national basketball was brought inside the homes of America, again transforming the sport.
After the TV deal, basketball in the United States became even more popular and exciting. In 1962, Wilt Chamberlain, a player for the Philadelphia Warriors, scored 100 points in one game. If this was not enough, the NBA added the three-point line, so that players shooting baskets behind this line could earn their teams even more points, resulting in higher-scoring games in an effort to increase competition amongst teams and entertainment value amongst fans. Just four years after this addition, the highest-scoring NBA game of all time was recorded when the Detroit Pistons beat the Denver Nuggets, 186-184, in 1983. Still, to this day, basketball is alive and well. In 2023, LeBron James broke the previous all-time scoring record, held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, scoring his 38,388th point. Basketball has come a long way in just over 130 years.