In December 1891 by Dr. James Naismith invented basketball. He was an instructor at the YMCA at the time. It was a rainy day and he needed something for his students to do. He thought of ideas. He nailed a peach basket to a wall ten feet up. The goal was to get the ball into the basket. The bad part was that the balls had to be retrieved because it was a basket. This took place in what is now Springfield collage. His students played it with soccer balls. Naismith called this game basketball because you throw a ball in the basket.
The original rules of basketball were very different then current rules. There were things that would result in fouls. Some of these things were no hitting ball with fists. No player can run with the ball. You can only use your hands to hold the ball. No pushing, shoving or tripping players on the other team. Another rule is that if one team commits 3 fouls in a row, the other team will get a point. The referee decides if the ball is in or out of bounds. He also decides if someone committed foul or not. In the end, the team that has the most points wins. There were two 15 minute halves with a 5 minute rest in-between them.
The first official basketball game took place in the YMCA gym in Albany NY. It took place on Jan 20 1892. This was only about a month after the creation of the game. It was played by 9 players on each team. The final score of the game was 1-0. The court was only about ½ the size of the current NBA regulation size court. 5 years later (1897), there were teams of 5 instead of 9. The peach baskets were used until 1906. Then metal hoops and backboards were invented and used. Another advancement in basketballs were the actual balls. Very early basketballs were brown. Later in 1950, Tony Hinkle invented the orange balls we use today. Also around 1950 dribbling came into the sport. Because new manufacturing let the balls become round enough to bounce.