Talented

“I'm a basketball player. That's what I do and what I love but that's just not all who I am. I'm talented in a lot of different areas.” (Kevin Durant)

Basketball is a team sport. Two teams of five players each try to score by shooting a ball through a hoop elevated 10 feet above the ground. The game is played on a rectangular floor called the court, and there is a hoop at each end.

The court is divided into two main sections by the mid-court line. If the offensive team puts the ball into play behind the mid-court line, it has ten seconds to get the ball over the mid-court line. If it doesn't, then the defense gets the ball. Once the offensive team gets the ball over the mid-court line, it can no longer have possession of the ball in the area in back of the line. If it does, the defense is awarded the ball.

The ball is moved down the court toward the basket by passing or dribbling. The team with the ball is called the offense. The team without the ball is called the defense. They try to steal the ball, contest shots, steal and deflect passes, and garner rebounds.

When a team makes a basket, they score two points and the ball goes to the other team. If a basket, or field goal, is made outside of the three-point arc, then that basket is worth three points. A free throw is worth one point. Free throws are awarded to a team according to some formats involving the number of fouls committed in a half and/or the type of foul committed.

 Fouling a shooter always results in two or three free throws being awarded the shooter, depending upon where he was when he shot. If he was beyond the three-point line, then he gets three shots. Other types of fouls do not result in free throws being awarded until a certain number have accumulated during a half.

 Each team is assigned a basket or goal to defend. This means that the other basket is their scoring basket. At halftime, the teams switch goals. The game begins with one player from either team at center court. A referee will toss the ball up between the two.

·        Adidas manufactures all the National Basketball Association (NBA) uniforms.

·        Basketball was played by using a soccer ball until 1929.

·        Basketball became an official Olympic event at the Summer Games in Berlin, Germany in 1936.

·        Basketball was first played on December 21, 1891 by Jim Naismith, a physical education teacher at a Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Springfield, Massachusetts.

·        Harlem Globetrotters Corey ‘Thunder’ Law made a shot from 109 feet, 9 inches, setting a world record.

·        Lynette Woodward was the first female Globetrotter basketball team player.

·        Ringball, a traditional South African sport that stems from basketball, has been played since 1907.

·        Slam dunks were illegal for almost nine years.

·        The court surface is 94 by 50 feet.

·        The first “hoops” were actually just peach baskets and the first backboards were made of wire.

·        The shot clock was invented by Danny Biasone.

·        The steel rim of the basket has a diameter of 18 inches and is 10 feet high.

·        The world record for the highest basketball shot is 415 feet high.

·        Wang Zhizhi was the first Chinese player to compete in the NBA.

·        Women’s basketball was added to the Olympics in 1976.

“To be successful in anything, you have to have a passion for it, and that leads to being enthusiastic and demanding. I didn't have it for history. So I wouldn't have been a good teacher in that area. But I had it for basketball. And that's what coaching is at every level: it's about teaching.” (Jeff Van Gundy)[i]

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[i] Sources used:

·        “40 Random Basketball Facts” by Serious Facts

·        “Basketball Facts” by Fact Monster

·        www.breakthroughbasketball.com