Unit 11: Sports in America

Basketball

Basketball

Basketball was deliberately created in 1891 by a physical education teacher in Massachusetts, Canadian-born James Naismith, to provide an indoor sports activity during the snowy winter months when outdoor playing fields could not be used. The basic rules of the game have not much changed since then. Today however there are many basketball courts set up out of doors, and youngsters frequently fix a hoop to a convenient post or even a wall in order to practice playing the game.


In recent times, a new rule requires a team to try to score within a brief time: 35 seconds in the collegiate game, 30 seconds in international play, and 24 seconds in American professional play. Teams that are leading in scoring no longer have the luxury of passing the ball around safely out of reach of the defensive team; they must shoot at the basket before the shot clock runs down. The clock is set at, for example, 24 seconds when a professional team gains possession of the ball. It then ticks down to zero, unless someone attempts to shoot the ball into the basket. Either the offensive team scores, or it recovers the missed attempt, or the opposing team gains possession. In all cases, the clock is reset.

Basketball therefore is a fast game, which does not permit leisurely snacking. Most fans sip a cold drink, or possibly dip into a large bag of popcorn, while watching the teams race back and forth on the court. Because it is such a fast game, the score can suddenly shift, and many games are won or lost in the final few seconds of play. This keeps spectators at the game until the very end, whereas in football and baseball many fans leave before the game is over when one team is so far ahead that the outcome seems certain.

Invented in 1891, basketball had its first professional team in 1896. But it wasn't until 1950 that the National Basketball Association of professional teams was established. For the next thirty years, professional basketball did not have much of an audience. In 1979 two college players, Larry Bird of Indiana State University and Magic Johnson of Michigan State University motivated an increased interest in the game through their friendly rivalry. Bird subsequently joined the Boston Celtics, and Johnson the Los Angeles Lakers. Both teams dominated the professional game through the 1980s and

Larry Bird	Magic Johnson
Boston Celtics	L.A.Lakers

even into the 1990s. The growing market in larger sized TV sets also helped, since basketball games are hard to follow on small screens, and the game is played in an arena that frequently seats fewer than 20000 spectators. (The largest arena currently is the Charlotte (NC) Coliseum seating 24000 viewers.)

After a few exhibition games in the fall, the 82-game season begins the first week in November. In mid-February, there is an intermission for the All-Star game, where the best players from teams in both Eastern and Western divisions, display their skills. In mid-April, the eight teams with the best records in each division begin a series of play-off games, where the winner of four out of seven games in a series advances to meet the winners of another play-off series. Finally, the survivors in each division meet for the NBA Championship series of games.

At the collegiate level, teams play a schedule of games based on both the geographical location of the university and its size and resources—a small liberal arts college would not be fairly matched with a large state university, with a much larger sports department. Records are kept on all these so-called conferences, and in March sixty four (64) winning teams from the conferences around the United States are matched against each other in a single game elimination series called March Madness. Thirty two teams are eliminated the first weekend, sixteen the next, and so on until there are only four teams left, the Final Four. And they play two games on one weekend the end of March to determine the collegiate champion.

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