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Evolution of the Game
The game of Basketball has come a long way from when it began in 1891-92. It's evolved and the players themselves have reevaluated to play accustomed to the new rules and regulations. -
Team Size
When it was first created, there wasn't an intial amount of players that could be on the court. They then experiemented with teams up to about 50 players which then got decided to have nine players on the court because of the numbers of students in Naismith's class. In 1897, the rule was officially changed to five players. -
Dribbling
Originally, players couldn't bounce the ball. In 1901, it was made possible for at least one dribble to be made before having to pass (players couldn't shoot after dribbling). Eight years later (1909), they instituted it to where you could continuously dribble before scoring or passing and ever since, the rule has been the same. -
Baskets
"Peach Baskets" were the first kind of basket or rim type thing for the sport at the time. The game moved very slow because after every made shot, a player had to retrieve the ball from it. In 1892, the "Peach Baskets"were replaced with cast iron rims. About 20 years later (1912) the open ended woven nylon nets were approved. -
Out Of Bounds
In the beginning, there weren't any bounderies defined for players not to cross because there were just walls. In 1904, they created the Out Of Bounds to add to the game. In 1913, the out of bounds rule was changed to the current rule of the team causing or touching the ball last when it goes out of bounds loses possession. This rule change was a major impact in reducing the physical play that was common place in the early games. -
Substitutions
Around the time when the sport first originated, players couldn't re-enter the game. In 1920, they made it so that players could re-enter the game just once. In 34' they expanded upon that for them to re-enter twice and In 45' they finally made it so they can re-enter as much as they needed. -
Backboards
Numerous backboards have come and gone since they were innovated. In 1916, they made it to where there was a gap between the backboard and the endline so players couldn't wall run for easy layups. In 1939, the gap was increased from 2 ft to 4 to allow more movement in that area. -
Goaltending
In 1944, the goal tending rule was invented making it illegial for defensive players to touch the ball on its downward flight. -
Ball Advancement
In the original and uncut version of the game, they used soccer balls to play. After a while they proved to be "Unsuitable for dribbling and ball handling." In the late 1890's, Spalding took over as the lead manufacturer. Before, the teams had to commemorate which kind of ball they wanted to use but in 1929 the balls were re-designed. In 42', molded balls that were vertially the same replaced the stitched balls. In 67', they had it changed to where the NBA and WNBA share similar balls now. -
No Dunking "Alcindor" Rule
From 1967 to 1977, the no dunking rule was enabled to "prevent basket damage and injuries." but it was mainly enacted to stop Lew Alcindor "Kareem Abdul-Jubbar." Without being able to dunk, Kareem created the once unstoppable sky hook. -
Center Jump
In 1937, after every score there would be a jumpball between two of the centers in game, this considerably slowed the game down. Alternating possessions replaced them in 1981 to eliminate the numerous amount of violations while commited the aforementioned jumpballs. -
Women's Basketball
Women's basketball was introduced in 1893 by Sendra Berenson. The first women's game was played between Stanford and California in 1896. The first known women’s high school game was played in Illinois that same year. In 1971 women were finally allowed to play full court. FIBA held the first women’s world championship in 1969 and Louisiana Tech won the first NCAA championship in 1982. In 1995, Oklahoma was the last state to switch from court sections to full court play in high school games