| An American game that has traveled well is | | | | was a need for a simple game that could be |
| basketball, now played by more than 250 million | | | | played indoors during winter. Naismith's legacy |
| people worldwide in an organized fashion, as well | | | | included the first great college basketball coach, |
| as by countless others in "pick-up" games. | | | | Forrest "Phog" Allen (1885-1974), who played for |
| Basketball originated in 1891 when a future | | | | Naismith at the University of Kansas and went on |
| Presbyterian minister named James Naismith | | | | to win 771 games as a coach at Kansas himself. |
| (1861-1939) was assigned to teach a physical | | | | Among Allen's star players was Wilt Chamberlain, |
| education class at a Young Men's Christian | | | | who became one of professional basketball's first |
| Association (YMCA) training school in Springfield, | | | | superstars -- one night in 1962, he scored a |
| Massachusetts. The class had been noted for | | | | record 100 points in a game. |
| being disorderly, and Naismith was told to invent a | | | | The first professional basketball league was |
| new game to keep the young men occupied. | | | | formed in 1898; players earned $2.50 for home |
| Since it was winter and very cold outside, a game | | | | games, $1.25 for games on the road. Not quite |
| that could be played indoors was desirable. | | | | 100 years later, Juwan Howard, a star player for |
| Naismith thought back to his boyhood in Canada, | | | | the Washington Bullets (now called the Washington |
| where he and his friends had played "duck on a | | | | Wizards), had competing offers of more than |
| rock," which involved trying to knock a large rock | | | | $100 million over seven seasons from the Bullets |
| off a boulder by throwing smaller rocks at it. He | | | | and the Miami Heat. |
| also recalled watching rugby players toss a ball | | | | Many teams in the National Basketball Association |
| into a box in a gymnasium. He had the idea of | | | | now have foreign players, who return home to |
| nailing up raised boxes into which players would | | | | represent their native countries during the Olympic |
| attempt to throw a ball. When boxes couldn't be | | | | Games. The so-called Dream Team, made up of |
| found, he used peach baskets. According to | | | | the top American professional basketball players, |
| Alexander Wolff, in his book 100 Years of Hoops, | | | | has represented the United States in recent |
| Naismith drew up the rules for the new game in | | | | Olympic Games. In 1996 the Dream Team trailed |
| "about an hour." Most of them still apply in some | | | | some opponents until fairly late in the |
| form today. | | | | games—an indication of basketball's growing |
| Basketball caught on because graduates of the | | | | international status. In Athens in 2004 Argentina |
| YMCA school traveled widely, because Naismith | | | | took home the gold, the first time a Latin |
| disseminated the rules freely, and because there | | | | American country won the basketball honor. |