basketball

ΑΠΟ: mmichalar - Ιαν• 30•23

Naismith_cc_img James Naismith

By Elisa Tola

basketball or… καλαθοσφαίριση

The term basketball is an English loan to most languages as well as to Greek and, although it has been translated as καλαθοσφαίριση, Greek fans prefer to use the English word.

Basketball is a sport played by two teams of five players on a rectangular court. The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter and 10 feet (3.0 m) high mounted to a backboard at each end of the court.

Although  relatively recently invented, it  is one of the world’s most popular and widely viewed sports.

Have you ever wondered how basketball got its name?

Basketball was invented by J.Naismith, a gym teacher (who was also a church minister!), in a ‘desperate’ attempt to keep his adolescent students from getting bored during the snowy winter of 1891 in Massachusetts.

At first he used peach baskets(!) but they wouldn’t hold for long  so he replaced them with metal wire trash cans! Very soon the hoop and net as we know it today was designed. However,  basketball  had to ‘become’ 20 years old before they added a hole in the bottom of the net, so that the ball could pass through the loop and net after every basket!  A big relief for the referee who-until then- had to push the ball out of the net using a long pole!

Now it’s your turn. Let us know what you think  of the name basketball by doing the following quiz:

http://goo.gl/forms/4WbC7epL89

Sources:

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball#History

http://superbeefy.com/who-invented-basketball/   

http://superbeefy.com/how-did-basketball-get-its-name-and-where-did-basketball-come-from/ 

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