The Evolution of Basketball

Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, has been quoted as saying “change is the only constant in life.” The very same thing can be said about the game of basketball.  Since its inception way back in the late 1800s, the game basketball has evolved in a way that no one thought possible. From the way the game is played to the types of players that reign supreme, basketball is always evolving. With the game being close to 140 years old, today we will be giving you a quick recap of the evolution of basketball. With the help of Sports Domain Lab, we are going to dive into the history of basketball.

The game of basketball was invented by James Naismith. Naismith was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, sports coach, and innovator. He invented the game of basketball at age 30 in 1891. He wrote the original basketball rule book and founded the University of Kansas basketball program.

Naismith’s idea of basketball was for it to be a game that maneuvers a soccer ball by dribbling it up the court as well as passing it to your teammates who would then go on and shoot the ball into a peach basket. Unlike today, the early years of basketball did not involve physical contact. That said, it did help if you were fast, agile and skillful at dribbling and passing the ball all while being calm, cool and collective when under pressure.

When high school and college teams began playing organized basketball, the game got a bit more physical. Defense began to tighten up and there was much more contact. This is when “fouls” were introduced to the game. Since there was no shot clock, a team had the ability to hold on to the ball for large amounts of time until they found a good shot they could take. This resulted in very low-scoring games (there were definitely no 121-115 scoring games back in the day). With that being the case, the game of basketball was much slower and boring back then. That all changed when the NBA introduced the shot clock in 1954. No more holding on to the ball, no more stalling, no more low scoring games. The game took a turn for the better at this point in time. The game of basketball was much more fast-paced. Player speed was much more important in order for you to get a better shot or blow past a defender. The ability to jump higher was also a good trait to have in order for you to score at a much better rate. The terms run-and-gun and fast-break were born during this era of basketball.

Another rule that helped evolve the game of basketball is the introduction of the three-point shot by the ABA back in 1967. The introduction of the long distance shot introduced a new aspect to the game resulting in higher scoring and much more entertaining games. Although the American Basketball Association were the ones who introduced the three-point shot, they were still no match (financial struggles) for the NBA and would later on succumb to them. Once that happened, the NBA absorbed four ABA teams while also adding the three-point shot to their game.

What about the slam dunk? While it became a standard move in the NBA by the 1970s, dunking was banned in the NCAA for nine years since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the first player to dunk the ball on a regular basis. He dominated the game the game so much that officials decided to temporarily ban the dunk.

Fast-forward to today, and the game of basketball totally relies on your speed, athleticism, strength and your basketball IQ (shout out Nikola Jokić). Although I do prefer the physicality that 90’s NBA was known for, in my opinion, the evolution of the NBA has changed for the better.

What era of basketball do you consider to be the best?