133 years of trying to touch the sky: this is how basketball was born, the sport of the stars born suddenly

Long before world stars like Michael Jordan , LeBron James either Kobe Bryant the most important character in the world of basketball, He was James Naismith, a high school physical education teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was he who, after a day of rain which prevented them from practicing physical activity outdoors, He imagined a game inside the gymnasium, hanging two apple-collecting baskets on either side of the room, in which players had to place a ball to score points. SO basketball was born.

It was December 21, 1891 , when a storm hit the place. The teacher decided to improvise to keep his students active. He divided them into two teams of nine players. The experiment did not go as planned. Naismith himself later said that he described the exercise as “a massacre.”

“I showed them the two peach baskets hanging on either side of the gymnasium, before explaining to them that the idea was to throw the ball into the opposing team’s basket. “I blew the whistle and that’s how the first basketball game started,” he described. The disaster arose from the absence of a key element: the rules of the game.”The boys started charging at each other, punching and punching each other and eventually fighting in the middle of the gym like there was anything worth fighting for. “, he said.

Likewise, the game was so popular that it was decided to create regulations that would regulate it. So on January 15, 1892, Naismith published the original 13 rules of basketball in The Triangle, the Springfield College newspaper. At this moment, The teacher did not measure the impact. He did not imagine that his game would become, over the years, one of the most practiced sports and that it would still bring in millions of dollars around the world.

Finally, in 1898, with the arrival of the first professional league in the world in the United States, the expansion of this sport began to become what it is today. The NBA is its biggest representative.

The initial regulation considered several basic aspects. “The ball can be thrown in any direction, with one or both hands “, specifies the first provision. “The ball may be thrown in any direction, with one or both hands, but never with a fist », added the second.

The third: “The player He can’t run with the ball. You must throw the ball from where you caught it. In case a player catches the ball in the middle of the run, as soon as he catches it, he must stop. And the fourth: “The ball must be carried in the hands. Arms or body are not used to support it “.

The next one was about field discipline. “Shouldering, grabbing, pushing, tripping or striking the opponent in any way is not permitted. The first violation of this rule by a player will be considered a foul; the second will disqualify him until the next basket is reached or, In the event that the intention to cause injury was clear, he will be disqualified for the entire match, without a substitute.

“Hitting the ball with the fist, violating rules 3 or 4 and what is described in No. 5 is considered a foul. ″, established the sixth article.

The seventh imposed a sanction which, to some extent, resembles current sanctions. “If one of the teams commits three consecutive fouls, a basket will be scored for the opposing team. “, Explain.

Conversion was the subject of the octave: “A field goal will be counted when the ball is thrown or kicked from the ground toward the basket and remains there as long as defenders don’t touch the ball or make it difficult to score. If the ball remains on the edge of the basket without entering it and the opponent moves the basket, it will count as one point. “, he defined.

We also talked about replacement. “When the ball goes out, The first to touch it will throw it onto the playing field. In the event of a dispute, the referee will throw him directly onto the field. The server has five seconds to do so; If you hold the ball longer, the ball will pass to the opposing team. If one of the teams persists in delaying the match, the assistant referee will signal a foul,” he explained.

The role of the principal judge’s collaborator has also been defined. “The assistant referee will be the judge of the men, recording fouls and warning the main referee when three consecutive fouls are committed. “He can disqualify players as established in rule number 5,” it was clarified.

The main judge was already, in fact, a real authority. “The head referee will judge what concerns the ball and determine when it is in play or out of play, which team it belongs to, in addition to monitoring the time. He will decide when a goal has been scored, count the baskets and also perform the usual functions of a referee,” states the eleventh provision.

The penultimate defined the duration of the meeting: “Time will be divided into two fifteen-minute halves, with a 5-minute break between them. »

And the last one was the most important: “The team that obtains the most points within this time limit will be considered the winner. In the event of a tie, if the captains agree, play may continue until a basket is scored.