The Britannica Guide to Basketball potx

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First Edition
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Introduction by Adam Augustyn
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Britannica guide to basketball / edited by Adam Augustyn.
p. cm. — (The world of sports)
“In association with Britannica Educational Publishing, Rosen Educational Services.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61530-577-3 (eBook)
1. Basketball—Juvenile literature. I. Augustyn, Adam. II. Britannica Educational
Publishing. III. Title. IV. Series.
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Contents
4
18
30
Introduction x
Chapter 1: The History of
Basketball 1
The Early Years 2
James A. Naismith 3
U.S. College Basketball 6
Changes to the Game 7
Hank Luisetti 9
Coaching Strategies 10
Accounting for Height 11

The Advent of Televised Games 14
Tournament Play 14
March Madness 15
The Modern Age of NCAA Play 17
John Wooden 19
Collegiate Women’s Play 20
Pat Summitt 21
Chapter 2: Professional Basketball in
the U.S. 23
Harlem Globetrotters 24
Early Professional Leagues 25
The NBA 26
Business and Development 29
The WNBA 29
Cynthia Cooper 32
International Competition 32
Phog Allen 33
Chapter 3: Play of the Game 35
Rules 35
Common Basketball Terms 39
John Stockton 41
Principles of Play 42
55
68
122
Offense 43
Defense 44
Chapter 4: The National
Basketball Association 46
Eastern Conference 48

Atlantic Division 48
Bill Russell 51
Willis Reed 56
Central Division 60
Scottie Pippen 63
Isiah Thomas 68
Southeast Division 73
Bob Pettit 74
Elvin Hayes 80
Western Conference 81
Southwest Division 81
Hakeem Olajuwon 84
Northwest Division 88
Lenny Wilkens 93
Jerry Sloan 98
Pacific Division 100
Jerry West 106
Chapter 5: Selected Basketball
Hall of Famers, 1959 to 1993 112
George Mikan 112
Joe Lapchick 114
Red Auerbach 115
Bob Cousy 116
Dolph Schayes 118
Bill Sharman 119
Elgin Baylor 120
Wilt Chamberlain 121
Jerry Lucas 124
Oscar Robertson 126
Bill Bradley 128

142
155
173
Dean Smith 129
Jack Twyman 131
John Havlicek 132
Rick Barry 133
Walt Frazier 135
Pete Maravich 136
Bob Knight 137
Al McGuire 140
Julius Erving 141
Bill Walton 143
Chapter 6: Selected Basketball
Hall of Famers, 1994 through
the Present 145
Carol Blazejowski 145
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 147
Anne Donovan 148
Cheryl Miller 151
Nancy Lieberman 153
Larry Bird 154
Wayne Embry 156
Mike Krzyzewski 158
Moses Malone 160
Magic Johnson 161
Earl Lloyd 163
Geno Auriemma 165
Charles Barkley 166
Phil Jackson 168

Patrick Ewing 170
Michael Jordan 172
David Robinson 175
Karl Malone 176
Chapter 7: Other Basketball
Greats 178
Carmelo Anthony 178
Kobe Bryant 179
185
Tim Duncan 182
Teresa Edwards 183
Kevin Garnett 184
Allen Iverson 187
LeBron James 189
Rebecca Lobo 191
Alonzo Mourning 192
Shaquille O’Neal 194
Dennis Rodman 196
Sheryl Swoopes 198
Yao Ming 199
Epilogue 201
Appendix: Basketball

Championship Winners 202
NBA Championship 202
WNBA Championship 205
NCAA Men’s Championship 205
NCAA Women’s Championship 208
FIBA Men’s World Championship 209
FIBA Women’s World

Championship 211
Glossary 212
Bibliography 215
Index 217
195
18 9
IntroductIon
xi
B
asketball is a truly global
game. Invented by a Canadian
who lived in the United States,
it is one of the most popular
spectator sports in Europe and
is played extensively in China.
People worldwide seem to like
the sport for its simplicity; only a
flat surface, a hoop, and a ball are
required to play. Another attrac-
tion is the beauty inherent in
basketball. The individuals who
engage in the sport at its highest
levels display a grace and athleti-
cism that is both unparalleled and
often enrapturing.
Basketball is rare among popu-
lar sports in that it has a discrete
and well-documented origin.
The game was created by James

A. Naismith in December 1891,
at a college in Springfield, Mass.,
where he was a physical educa-
tion instructor. Tasked by his boss
to create an indoor activity for
the students that could be played
during the winter, Naismith
developed a game that involved
shooting a soccer ball into two
peach baskets. (The first basket-
ball was introduced in 1894, and
an open basket with a net was
Shutterstock.com
INTRODUCTION
xii
adopted in 1912–13.) The rules of the sport initially did not
allow players to dribble the ball. Instead, players remained
stationary when handling the ball until they passed it
down the court to a teammate. Early basketball courts
were often irregularly shaped. Players sometimes had to
avoid stairways and pillars that were part of the field of
play, and baskets were frequently fastened to gymnasium
balconies, which let spectators swat at the ball as it neared
the goal.
The young game was not just mechanically different
from modern basketball, but stylistically different as well.
The professional version of the sport played in the late 19th
and early 20th century was a bruising and bloody affair,
with extremely low-scoring contests marred by a great
amount of on-court violence. As the game grew in popu-

larity, members of the larger crowds began to get in on the
act, grabbing and punching at players. Courts began to be
encased in chicken-wire cages to separate the participants
from the hostile fans. This type of enclosure gave rise to
popular nickname “cagers” for basketball players.
Considering where the sport was invented, it is not
surprising that basketball first caught on in American
colleges. The University of Kansas was particularly impor-
tant in the development of the game. From 1898 to 1937,
Naismith was the chairman of the school’s physical educa-
tion department, and he was also the coach of the Kansas
basketball team for 11 years. One of his players was Phog
Allen, who returned to Kansas to serve as basketball
coach between 1920 and 1956. Allen became known as
the “father of basketball coaching,” for a great number of
similarly iconic future coaches, such as Dean Smith and
Adolph Rupp, played under him at Kansas. His coaching
philosophy was propagated throughout the sport, helping
define basketball for generations.
7 The Britannica Guide to Basketball 7
xiii
College basketball grew in national popularity in the
1920s and ’30s while the pro game—which was home to
the increasingly violent cagers—struggled for public
acceptance. Game play at this time left quite a bit to be
desired, with scores routinely kept below 30 points owing
to the popular strategy of stalling the game by passing the
ball back and forth without attempting to score, in order
to run out the clock. A number of rules were instituted
in the 1930s that sped up the game, notably the creation

of a midcourt line that needed to be passed within 10
seconds of a possession and the rewarding of the ball to
the defensive team after a made basket. (Prior to that, a
jump ball had followed every score.) Another important
innovation came courtesy of Stanford University’s Hank
Luisetti, who popularized the running one-handed shot in
the late 1930s. The one-handed shot, which replaced the
static two-handed shot, later evolved into the jump shot,
which resulted in a much more athletic game.
The National Invitational Tournament (NIT), the
first prestigious collegiate postseason tournament, began
in 1938. Organized by New York City basketball writers
and played in New York’s Madison Square Garden, the
NIT brought media attention and glamour to the col-
lege game. The National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA)—the organization that administrates intercol-
legiate athletics in the United States—started its own
championship tournament in 1939. The NCAA tourna-
ment was overshadowed by the NIT until 1950, when the
latter was rocked by a gambling scandal. Consequently,
the NCAA saw a tremendous rise in popularity. Today the
NCAA tournament—commonly referred to as “March
Madness”—is one of America’s most popular spectator
sporting events, as tens of millions of fans tune in to (and
wager on) the tournament every year.
7 Introduction 7
xiv
Professional basketball in the United States took lon-
ger to catch on than did the college game. This was due in
part to the peripatetic nature of early pro-league players,

who usually sold their services to the highest bidder on a
per-game basis. As a result, teams had extremely volatile
rosters, which would result in games of spotty quality and
unreliable league finances.
One team that was an early sensation was the Original
Celtics, a barnstorming club from New York City that
thrived in the years before World War I. In 1926 the all-
black team the Savoy Big Five was founded in Chicago.
The team became known as the Harlem Globetrotters
in 1930. The Globetrotters proceeded to establish them-
selves as the most successful barnstorming club in the
history of the sport. They continue to entertain crowds
around the world with their comedy-infused basketball
games into the present day.
The first basketball league to assume major league
status was the Basketball Association of America (BAA),
which began play in 1946. The BAA put an emphasis on
skilled play over the brawling of older leagues like the
National Basketball League (NBL). The BAA instituted
player contracts with a reserve rule that prevented play-
ers from hopping from team to team. The stable and
profitable BAA merged with the NBL in 1949 to form the
National Basketball Association (NBA). The NBA insti-
tuted a 24-second shot clock in the 1954–55 season, which
forced teams on offense to speed up their play and made
the sport vastly more appealing to casual fans.
The NBA’s popularity was buoyed by the national
attention given to the league’s most dominant dynasty,
the Boston Celtics of the 1950s and ’60s. Led by cigar-
chomping head coach Red Auerbach, the Celtics won 11

of the 13 NBA championships between 1957 and 1969. The
7 The Britannica Guide to Basketball 7
xv
Boston teams of this era featured celebrated stars such as
point guard Bob Cousy, guard-forward John Havlicek, and
centre Bill Russell, who served as the team’s player-coach
for the last two championships over this period, becom-
ing the league’s first African American head coach in the
process.
Throughout the 1960s, the Celtics frequently played
the Los Angeles Lakers for the championship series.
The two teams met in the NBA finals six times over that
decade, with the Celtics winning on each occasion. These
Lakers squads also starred some of the best players in bas-
ketball history, namely Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, and Wilt
Chamberlain. Despite the fact that the Lakers lost each
of their Finals match-ups with Boston in the 1960s, the
seeds were sown for an enduring bicoastal rivalry that has
resulted in 12 total championship face-offs—and counting.
In 1967 the American Basketball Association (ABA)
was formed as a direct challenge to the NBA’s basket-
ball dominance. The ABA soon became famous for its
freewheeling style of play and fan-friendly innovations,
including the three-point shot and the slam dunk con-
test. The new league also managed to draw talent equal
to that playing in the NBA at the time, such as future
Hall of Famers Connie Hawkins, David Thompson,
and Julius “Dr. J” Erving. In 1976 a lawsuit settlement
resulted in the absorption of four ABA franchises by
the NBA and the dissolution of the remainder of the

upstart league. Despite being short-lived, the ABA had
a lasting impact on the sport, as it helped usher in an
era of flashy individualism that was enormously popular
with basketball fans.
The NBA reached a new high-water mark in the early
1980s as the Lakers and Celtics, led by Magic Johnson and
Larry Bird, respectively, again emerged as the two best
7 Introduction 7
7 The Britannica Guide to Basketball 7
xvi
franchises in the league. Johnson and Bird had a fierce
but friendly personal rivalry that dated back to their
college days, when Johnson’s Michigan State University
topped Bird’s Indiana State University in the 1979 NCAA
championship game. At the professional level, the two
captured the basketball world’s attention as fans every-
where chose to root for one of the vastly disparate yet
equally beloved personas: Johnson, the charismatic and
smiling African American point guard who dazzled with
his pinpoint passes and unmatched court vision, and
Bird, the quiet and occasionally cantankerous Caucasian
forward who possessed one of the keenest long-distance
shots in the game’s history. The pair met in the NBA finals
three times in the 1980s, with Johnson’s Lakers coming
out on top twice.
Bird and Johnson were not the only talented players
who thrived in the 1980s and ’90s. Charles Barkley, Isiah
Thomas, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Patrick Ewing, and
Hakeem Olajuwon, among others, made names for them-
selves as well. However popular any of these players were,

the sport’s greatest global icon—and, in the eyes of many
observers, the single greatest athlete of all time—was
Michael Jordan. Soon after getting drafted by the Chicago
Bulls in 1984, Jordan established himself as one of the
most prolific scorers ever to step on a court. The charming
and talented Jordan became internationally known not
just for his basketball prowess, but for his unprecedented
prowess as a pitchman. His numerous endorsement deals
made him an international brand. Known for his fierce
competitiveness and iron will, Jordan led the Bulls to six
championships in eight years.
At the dawning of the 21st century, basketball faced
something of a crisis. Labour woes forced the cancella-
tion of a large part of the 1998–99 season, and Jordan’s
xvii
7
Introduction 7
retirement in 1998 left the NBA without a transcendent
superstar for the first time in decades. Attendance and
television ratings fell, leading some to question if the
league was long for the upper ranks of professional sports.
Such fears were eventually put to rest with the ascendance
of celebrated stars such as Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant,
Kevin Garnett, and LeBron James. The NBA broke yearly
league-wide attendance records numerous times between
2005 and 2011.
While other popular American sports such as base-
ball and gridiron football do not have proper professional
leagues for female athletes, women have played basketball
at the highest level for decades (in addition to the promi-

nence of the highly successful women’s NCAA basketball).
The most prosperous of these professional leagues is the
Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA),
which began play in 1997. A very lucrative venture, the
WNBA has propelled players such as Sheryl Swoopes and
Cynthia Cooper to levels of fame on par with that of their
male peers.
Basketball is the only major sport of a wholly American
origin, but that has not prevented it from being embraced
around the globe. The game has become second in popu-
larity to soccer in a great number of countries, and many
professional leagues in Europe and South America have
teams that are nearly as skilled as those in the NBA. The
sport boasts two marquee international competitions, the
Olympic Games and the Fédération Internationale de
Basketball Amateur (FIBA) world championships. These
events put basketball at the forefront of the global sport-
ing world’s consciousness every two years. The game’s
worldwide popularity—which continues to grow each
year—ensures that basketball will remain one of the most
universally beloved sports for the foreseeable future.
1
chapter 1
the hIstory of
BasketBall
B
asketball is a relatively simple game played between
two teams of five players each on a rectangular court,
usually indoors. Each team tries to score by tossing the

ball through the opponent’s goal, an elevated horizontal
hoop and net called a basket.
The only major sport strictly of U.S. origin, basket-
ball was invented by James A. Naismith (1861–1939) on
1
James Naismith (middle right, in gray suit jacket), with members of the
first basketball team, in Springfield, Mass. Hulton Archive/Getty Images
James Naismith
(middle right, in gray suit jacket)
, with members of the
2
7
The Britannica Guide to Basketball 7
or about Dec. 1, 1891, at the International Young Men’s
Christian Association (YMCA) Training School (now
Springfield College), Springfield, Mass., where Naismith
was an instructor in physical education.
For that first game of basketball in 1891, Naismith
used as goals two half-bushel peach baskets, which gave
the sport its name. The students were enthusiastic.
After much running and shooting, William R. Chase
made a midcourt shot—the only score in that historic
contest. Word spread about the newly invented game,
and numerous associations wrote Naismith for a copy
of the rules, which were published in the Jan. 15, 1892,
issue of the Triangle, the YMCA Training School’s cam-
pus paper.
While basketball is competitively a winter sport, it is
played year-round—on summer playgrounds; in munici-
pal, industrial, and church halls; in schoolyards and

family driveways; and in summer camps—often on an
informal basis between two or more contestants. Many
grammar schools, youth groups, municipal recreation
centres, churches, and other organizations conduct bas-
ketball programs for youngsters of less than high school
age. Jay Archer, of Scranton, Penn., introduced “biddy”
basketball in 1950 for boys and girls under 12 years of age,
the court and equipment being adjusted for size.
THE EARLY YEARS
In the sport’s early years the number of players on a team
varied according to the number in the class and the size
of the playing area. In 1894 teams began to play with five
on a side when the playing area was less than 1,800 square
feet (167.2 square metres); the number rose to seven when
the gymnasium measured from 1,800 to 3,600 square feet
3
JAMES A. NAISMITH
(b. Nov. 6, 1861, Almonte, Ont., Can.—d. Nov. 28, 1939, Lawrence, Kan., U.S.)
James A. Naismith was a Canadian-American physical education
director who, in December 1891, at the International Young Men’s
Christian Association Training School, afterward Springfield (Mass.)
College, invented the game of basketball.
As a young man, Naismith (who had no middle name but adopted
the initial “A”) studied theology and excelled in various sports.
In the autumn of 1891 he was appointed an instructor by Luther
Halsey Gulick, Jr., head of the Physical Education Department at
Springfield College. Gulick asked Naismith and other instructors
to devise indoor games that could replace the exercises used at the
school during the winter. For his new game Naismith selected fea-
tures of soccer, American football, field hockey, and other outdoor

sports but, in theory, eliminated body contact between players.
Because his physical education class at that time was composed of
18 men, basketball originally was played by nine on each side. This
number eventually was reduced to five.
The first games employed half-bushel peach baskets as targets,
so a stepladder was needed to retrieve the ball after infrequent goals.
Naismith’s original rules, prohibiting walking or running with the ball
and limiting physical contact, are still the basis of a game that spread
throughout the world.
In 1898 Naismith received an M.D. from Gross Medical College,
Denver, Colo., afterward the University of Colorado School of
Medicine. From that year until 1937 he was chairman of the physical
education department at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, where
he also coached basketball until 1908. In addition to basketball, he
is credited with inventing the protective helmet for football play-
ers. Incorporated in 1959, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of
Fame in Springfield, Mass., was is named in his honour.
7
The History of Basketball 7
(334.5 square metres) and up to nine when the playing area
exceeded that. In 1895 the number was occasionally set
at five by mutual consent; the rules stipulated five play-
ers two years later. This number has remained ever since.
4
7
The Britannica Guide to Basketball 7
A basketball goal (metal rim without a net) hangs from a post near the
balcony of a Springfield, Mass., gymnasium in 1900. Hulton Archive/
Getty Images
The courts often were of irregular shape with occasional

obstructions such as pillars, stairways, or offices that
interfered with play. In 1903 it was ruled that all bound-
ary lines must be straight.
Originally, players wore one of three styles of uni-
forms: knee-length football trousers; jersey tights, as
commonly worn by wrestlers; or short padded pants,
which were forerunners of today’s uniforms, plus knee
guards. In 1893 the Narragansett Machinery Co. of
Providence, R.I., marketed a hoop of iron with a ham-
mock style of basket. Originally a ladder, then a pole,
and finally a chain fastened to the bottom of the net was
used to retrieve a ball after a goal had been scored. Nets
5
open at the bottom were adopted in 1912–13. In 1895–96
the points for making a basket (goal, or field goal) were
reduced from three to two, and the points for making a
free throw (shot uncontested from a line in front of the
basket after a foul had been committed) were reduced
from three to one.
Baskets were frequently attached to balconies, mak-
ing it easy for spectators behind a basket to lean over
the railings and deflect the ball to favour one side and
hinder the other; in 1895 teams were urged to provide a
4-by-6-foot (1.2-by-1.8-metre) screen for the purpose of
eliminating interference. Soon after, wooden backboards
proved more suitable. Glass backboards were legalized by
the professionals in 1908–09 and by colleges in 1909–10.
In 1920–21 the backboards were moved 2 feet (0.6 metre),
and in 1939–40 they were moved 4 feet, in from the end
lines to reduce frequent stepping out-of-bounds. Fan-

shaped backboards were made legal in 1940–41.
A soccer ball (football) was used for the first two years.
In 1894 the first basketball was marketed. It was laced,
measured close to 32 inches (81 cm), or about 4 inches
(10 cm) larger than the soccer ball, in circumference, and
weighed less than 20 ounces (567 grams). By 1948–49,
when the laceless molded ball was made official, the size
had been set at 30 inches (76 cm).
While basketball helped swell the membership of
YMCAs because of the availability of their gyms, within
five years the game was outlawed by various associations
because gyms that had been occupied by classes of 50 or
60 members were now monopolized by only 10 to 18 play-
ers. The banishment of the game induced many members
to terminate their YMCA membership and hire halls to
play the game, thus paving the way to the professionaliza-
tion of the sport.
7 The History of Basketball 7
7 The Britannica Guide to Basketball 7
6
Since Naismith and five of his original players were
Canadian, it is not surprising that Canada was the first
country outside the United States to play the game.
Basketball was introduced in France in 1893, in England in
1894, in Australia, China, and India soon thereafter, and in
Japan in 1900.
U.S. COLLEGE BASKETBALL
The first college to play the game was either Geneva
College (Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania) or the University of
Iowa. C.O. Bemis heard about the new sport at Springfield

and tried it out with his students at Geneva in 1892. At
Iowa, H.F. Kallenberg, who had attended Springfield in
1890, wrote Naismith for a copy of the rules and also pre-
sented the game to his students.
At Springfield, Kallenberg met Amos Alonzo Stagg,
who became athletic director at the new University of
Chicago in 1892. The first college basketball game with five
on a side was played between the University of Chicago
and the University of Iowa in Iowa City on Jan. 18, 1896.
The University of Chicago won, 15–12, with neither team
using a substitute. Kallenberg refereed that game—a com-
mon practice in that era—and some of the spectators took
exception to several of his decisions.
The colleges formed their own rules committee in
1905. By 1913 there were at least five sets of rules: colle-
giate, YMCA–Amateur Athletic Union, those used by
state militia groups, and two varieties of professional
rules. Teams often agreed to play under a different set for
each half of a game. To establish some measure of unifor-
mity, the colleges, Amateur Athletic Union, and YMCA
formed the Joint Rules Committee in 1915. This group was
renamed the National Basketball Committee (NBC) of