Basketball bears a distant resemblance to it's early days, when the basketball net wasn't a net at all but a peach basket. Apparently James Naismith the inventor of basketball, had a keen intuition for sports, but not quite so keen on physics. The obvious problem with the impromptu basketball net, was that there was no hole in the bottom for the basket ball to fall through. I sure we've all seen the commercial where one of the players has to climb up the ladder to retrieve the basketball after each score. The brilliant solution by Mr Naismith, was of course to cut a hole in the bottom of the basket. Seems like an obvious solution to those of us versed in the modern game of basketball, but wait the punch line is yet to come. The hole they cut, wasn't big enough for the basketball to fall through. It was however, big enough for a person standing on the floor to poke a broom handle through and push the basketball ball back up through the top. Funny how the obvious is not always so obvious to those at the time. In spite of it's somewhat comical beginnings, basketball has truly evolved to one of the premier sporting events in the world. I bet James would be thrilled to see his little game today. I hope.
Dusting Jack
Basketball had quite a few funny quirks along the road to success. One of the early interesting rules would have pretty hilarious consequences today. In today's game of basketball, when a ball goes out of bounds, the last player to touch the basketball ball, is ruled to have been responsible for putting the ball out of play, and therefor his/her team loses possession of the ball. Things were a little different with the original basket rules. In the original game of basketball, the first player to retrieve a ball that had gone out of bounds, earned possession of the ball for his team. I suppose that makes sense when your first playing the game in a gymnasium, with one gym teacher, who doesn't want to have to retrieve every out of bounds ball. Why don't just let the players retrieve the basket balls. Ha! Could you imagine the melee that would occur in today's professional games, if that was the rule. I can just see Kobe Bryant climbing over Jack Nicholson, spilling his drink, knocking his glasses all cock-eyed in a furiously desperate attempt to grab the loose ball before his opponent. Comical . . . yes. Hilarious . . . yes. Entertaining . . . yes. Likely to be adopted by the NBA . . . not frigging likely. We can always dream though.
Entertainment As Sport
Basketball certainly has to be one of the more successful forms of sports entertainment today. From all the pre-game theatrical dramatics (Ala the Micheal Jordan era Chicago Bulls) to the bad boys that seem to be prevalent in any sport, but especially basketball. In spite of the fact that most basketball games are decided in the last few minutes of play, it is truly an exciting game to watch and play. Especially if you get the opportunity to view a basketball game live. Highly recommended. Those guys make the television guys look like their moving in slow motion.
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