Orange Ball: Basketball Development The game of basketball created by Naismith in 1891 became an instant success with colleges, high schools and YMCA’s for both men and women. It was a real game with (usually frequent) scoring that could be played consistently indoors– especially in New England where the weather is only conducive to outdoor play a fraction of the year. Within a few years, five players on each team became the standard on the court versus Naismith’s original nine to a side. It was Alonzo Stagg, a disciple of Professor Naismith, who established 10 men on the court consistently in 1906 and it stuck.
Amos Alonzo Stagg, c. 1906
The development of the rubber basketball occurred in Indiana in 1930. This abolished the need to use a soccer ball or worse yet, a football. The leather basketball as we know it today became common in the 1960’s. Standards for the time of the game were put in place with the introduction of game clocks beginning in 1920. The backboard came into being because the balcony backboards led to fan interference. Soon an established backboard standard of four feet from the end line with dimensions of three and one-half feet wide by six feet high prevailed. Beamis of Pittsburgh Geneva College fielded the first men’s hoops collegiate team. Hamline College and the University of Minnesota School of Agriculture played the first collegiate game February 9, 1895–won by Minnesota 9-3. College rivalries soon flourished and the sport was off and running.
In the 1950s, Hinckley of Butler fame established the orange ball to enhance its visibility by players, coaches and fans. The orange basketball has never left the game since being introduced. More recently, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) uses an orange and oatmeal colored ball–akin to the red-white-blue ball of the former American Basketball Association (ABA). The growth of hoops in its formative years was impressive on the collegiate level with 360 teams playing the game by 1914. The game’s popularity led in turn to organizations overseeing hoops and its rules while providing for an even playing field. Nothing like the modern day arms race for players and coaches hadn’t hit college basketball in the early 1900’s. Therefore, these early organizations didn’t require the unending lists of rules monitoring athletes, coaches and boosters that exists today. Early organizations such as the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the National Association of Athletics (NAA), Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) and eventually the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA, which derived from the IAAUS) soon took command of basketball at its collegiate hub. President Theodore Roosevelt was a strong proponent of the IAAUS. Federal efforts in this era consisted of encouragement and not regulation. The promulgation of simple rules for play, coaching, sportsmanship, fan conduct and even recruiting began to be formulated by these early athletic organizations. There was not the encyclopedia of coaching, student athlete, institution and booster rules the NCAA has implemented over time–only a simple code of play and sportsmanship.
National level college championships began with the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) in 1938 when Temple defeated Colorado in the first basketball collegiate championship. However, due to scandals and cheating within the NIT, in 1939 the NCAA began holding national men’s collegiate basketball tournaments. The first men’s basketball champion was Oregon which defeated Ohio State at Patten Gymnasium in Evanston, Illinois.
1939 NCAA Tournament
The initial NCAA tournament sought to geographically divide the country into eight sections to determine a champion of collegiate hoops. Teams had to win their geographic division to advance to the finals. Additionally a period of time occurred where only one team from a conference could actually be in the NCAA season ending tournament. The NCAA tournament field is now based on computer power rankings. Thus it matters who you play, when you play that team, the oppositions’ opponents and the margin of victory in order to gain entrance into the present ever expanding NCAA field. A rating percentage index (RPI) is used as one of the power rankings in the computer model. As the season wears down, a team’s chances to gain entrance into the final NCAA tournament increase if they compete well within their conference tournament. Winning the conference tournament in March provides a team an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Teams “on the bubble” (those that may, or may not, be selected for an at-large bid to the tournament) have for years withstood scrutiny from hoop analysts on decision day. College men’s hoops then grants NIT bids to the competitive teams not selected to be in the NCAA tournament field. Generally an NIT winner is peaking at the end of the season and would probably fare well within the NCAA tourney but failed to make the tournament cut. The women’s NCAA tournament is held in parallel with the men’s with much of the same attention given regarding seeding, rankings and “bubble” teams as the men’s tourney.
Slowly as the dribble became legal in the 1940’s, basketball evolved into a game of skill at handling the basketball to set up points. The dribble came from the bounce pass which Naismith allowed in the original rules. The dribble, by definition, is movement and advancement of the basketball by repeated hand movements without “carrying” or “palming” the ball. Carrying the ball equates to a double dribble or travel violation since the ball is cradled and a dribble pattern reestablished. Avoiding the call requires quick hand movements without the hand below the ball at any time. Side to side directing of the ball without the hand underneath is perfectly legal. Use of two hands on the ball at one time while dribbling is a violation. As such, a ball handler (typically today the #1 guard position) was invaluable on a team. A team couldn’t advance the ball against a press (up court defensive pressure), couldn’t run a play correctly on offense nor easily score without proficient ball handlers. This hasn’t substantively changed through the decades of basketball development. Most teams that win have excellent ball handlers, and in order to win a high school, NCAA or professional level tournament, superior guard play is ultimately vital. Speed, quickness, and agility entered the game in multiple ways. Big men, small men and even subs had to generally have superior speed and conditioning. Speed can be gauged by the absolute time required to move up and down the basketball court. An advantage is realized if the other team can’t get back on defense soon enough, leading to an imbalance of offensive versus defensive players (3 on 2). Today this is called “numbers.” Teams then had to recruit real athletes who had sprinting skills as well as ball handling skills. One had to have “game” as we know it today. “Game” involves not only speed, but quickness and agility. Quickness involves the immediate acceleration of voluntary motion–a timed event. As such, the ability to grab a loose ball, pivot, draw a foul, or launch or block a shot is highly dependent upon one’s quickness. Agility is required by hoops players to affect ease of movement and coordination. A slow big player lumbering down the court may work in a preseason or non-playoff competition. However, in competi-
tive basketball play getting back on defense rapidly is just as important as scoring. A team killing themselves to score on an offensive set didn’t want to give up the easy hoop immediately on the other end. Coach John Wooden noticed this early and developed the actual fast break as we know it today. Fast breaks take advantage of superior conditioning combined with complex schemes of center, side court and even delayed breaks. As basketball developed over time, mastering each aspect of the game came to be expected. You couldn’t be just a shooter, rebounder, defender or playmaker. Players required all the basketball skills in addition to quickness and agility. However, specialty situations developed that required play from players with specific skills (i.e. dribblers to run out the clock, 3-point shooters, rebounders, free throw specialists). Usually if a player was a superb rebounder with an eye for the ball, then that player also was a good ball handler, decent shooter and had court sense with a low turnover rate. There is no other sport that is equal to hoops in requiring immediate decisions on offense, defense and transition (post defensive rebound and initiating the offense by set or fast break). This mental aspect of immediate decision making within basketball develops through years of play and expert coaching. The “game” a player possesses and displays comes additionally from thousands of hours of solitary practice and play. Associated mental drive and some genetic assistance play a vital part in every player’s ultimate competitive “game” and development. Determining a high school national hoops champion was an endeavor in the early years. In 1926, thirty-seven states had high school varsity teams. Coach Stagg at the University of Chicago had 29 high school teams that participated in the National Interscholastic Basketball tournament in 1929. No one has duplicated this since his time. In this, Stagg was truly ahead of his time. While some sports pundits criticize commercializing the high school athlete via television and Internet viewing of games (i.e. McDonald’s All Star Game), it’s worth noting that Stagg was organizing not only All Star, but national high school team tournaments nearly a century ago even though there was considerably less funds available for transportation. At Stagg’s national high school tourney’s peak, the National Federation of State High
School Associations and North Central Association of Colleges and Schools became concerned that the tournament was being used for professional basketball recruiting. This ultimately brought an end to the tournament due to academic accreditation concerns by the participating high schools. This approach toward amateurism prevailed for 63 years until the “Dream Team” was fielded for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The National Catholic Interscholastic Basketball Tournament ran from 1924 to 1941 at Loyola University. The National Catholic High School Invitational Basketball Tournament from 1954 to 1978 played at a series of venues including Catholic University, Georgetown and George Mason. The National Interscholastic Basketball Tournament for Black High Schools was held from 1929 to 1942 at Hampton Institute in Virginia. Beginning at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, the National Invitational Interscholastic Basketball Tournament for black high schools was held from 1941 to 1967. Following a pause during World War II, the tournament resumed at Tennessee State College in Nashville. With the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education which ended school segregation however, the basis for the championship rapidly dwindled among schools nationally. The last black high school national team tournaments were held at Alabama State College from 1964 to 1967. Recently ESPN has sponsored and televised their version of a National High School Tournament. Invitees are determined by national rank and the top eight teams play at Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland. This made-for-TV hoops national high school tourney is scheduled after the schools’ respective state or conference high school championships. More recently, marketing forces are pushing to create an NCAA styled playoffs for high school basketball with national
exposure. Though the same several national high school federations oppose this idea for the same reasons advanced in the 1930‘s, with free market forces at play, it may well be inevitable that basketball will crown boy’s and girl’s high school national champions in the near future. I would even go so far as to predict that in the very near future, both private
and public schools will play routinely on national television. Arguably high school players need as much exposure as possible for college scholarship consideration, while a select few hoops thoroughbreds could use the exposure for a possible early professional career. Media interest and the growth of crowd size at basketball games is quite impressive. The incredible amount of time and energy basketball has created touches millions of lives. National tournaments involve not only the teams but families, fans, teachers, administrators, transportation systems, local organizers and human worker-bees along with media marketing companies. Basketball has become an institution to such a degree that few in our country can avoid its growth and influence on the culture. The women in our family (who claim to have little hoops interest) were glued to the TV during the 2011 NBA Finals series between the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat. When I finally escaped the confines of the operating room and got home after driving through a Colorado snowstorm, their collective greeting to me was, “Why aren’t you watching this great game?” As it was, I had just escaped from a long surgical case working with a circulating RN who proclaimed also to not be a hoops fan. As I dropped the patient’s chart off at her desk, I noticed she had the same NBA finals game on line at the Operating Room’s desktop computer! Surely Naismith is watching, smiling, and praying from heaven as the game he invented continues to advance. Fan interest in the human element associated with the game– personalities and match ups between rival teams and players to include fantasy leagues–brings them repeatedly back to the games.
league. The star of the league was Ed Wachter, who played in 1800 professional basketball games. Wachter won 10 championships in his 15 years as a professional. In 1927 the Buffer Germans and original Celtics appeared on the scene. While the Germans faded into history, the Celtics flourished from their early days in New York City before moving to Boston. The ABL lasted six years, from 1925–1931. The New York Renaissance was a very prominent New York City team in the 1930’s. Eventually the Renaissance took a backseat to the Harlem Globetrotters, a team of African Americans organized in 1926 in South Chicago. Since their beginning, the Globetrotters have become the most acclaimed team worldwide of the past century, playing in more than 120 countries. Millions of fans have watched their epic barnstorming show featuring extraordinary basketball talent, comedy and excitement. The Globetrotters have won 99% of their games, including besting the great NBA George Mikan-led Lakers back in the 1950’s. Following World War II, basketball grew even more in popularity as games at every level–high school, college and
Even in its early years hoops games were well attended. Professional basketball began over a century ago in the Tren-
ton YMCA where players received a small remuneration for playing basketball. The small gate receipts from admiring fans constituted the players payments. In 1925 a group of wealthy business men and sports entrepreneurs formed the American Basketball League (ABL). Comprised of initially six–and later eight–teams, the ABL became a full blown professional
professional–were regularly attended. With basketball games being broadcast by radio as early as 1940 (X2XBS in New York), it wasn’t long following the introduction of television in the 1950‘s before games were available on a national level. Although baseball and football preceded basketball’s television and radio coverage, slowly hoops teams at every level became affiliated with a local or regional radio station, with a select few NBA teams having their games broadcast live nationally. Major collegiate programs such as Kentucky had their games broadcasted on television and radio nationally. High school coverage remained mostly a local radio event with typically only state tournaments being televised. With the development of personal computers, high speed Internet connections and handheld devices during the last 20 years, there are now no limits to the quality and quantity of media coverage for hoops. Even Division III NCAA schools stream their games on the Internet. The seemingly insatiable public appetite for more and more exposure to the sport has produced several common elements among the several networks who carry college and professional hoops. Media savvy former coaches and players
have created their own loyal following among fans who seem to be comforted by seeing and hearing a familiar personage covering games. Their combinations of basketball expertise and onscreen personality have produced remarkable onscreen success for people like Dick Vitale, Jay Bilas, Brent Musburger, Digger Phelps and Bob Knight among others. Another wrinkle in this mix is the emerging role of female court-side reports. Wither by dint of contractual obligations or yielding to the demands of male chivalry, it seems team coaches are much more receptive to the pre-mid-post game interview with a woman versus entertaining the questions of a male reporter. These court-side interviews seem to satisfy the public’s presumed desire to hear from the coaches’ mouths what they are feeling and thinking, whether winning or losing. The money realized through the public’s fascination with basketball and the media’s promotion of the sport through its varied forums is almost impossible to quantify. The NCAA’s contract with several TV networks for coverage of its annual tournament reaped over 500 million dollars in 2010 and can be expected to grow into the future. At the professional level, the NBA receives $930 million per year from all of its current broadcasting partners (ESPN, ABC, ESPN Radio, and NBA TV). As media continues to develop technically and in its breadth of basketball coverage, we can expect the viewing market that watches these amazingly athletic players grow exponentially. With this ever enlarging media stage, competition for basketball’s media share is becoming more pronounced. While large contracts with sporting goods companies, marketing firms and other sports media related entities give the appearance that everyone in the “basketball business” is swimming in dough, the reality is that only a few high profile companies–those able to bid large amounts of cash–are able to garner attractive media broadcast rights and merchandizing contracts. The true growth of hoops has been truly phenomenal. It is such a simple sport with generally minimal costs for players. Naismith and the early promoters of the sport would no doubt be both shocked and pleased at the level of excitement, media coverage and the true athleticism displayed in the game today. Comparisons among basketball players and teams of different generations are constantly being made as the game’s history unfolds. Obviously only the computer and expert insight by knowledgeable fans, players and coaches can lead to any firm contrasting generational conclusions. Books are written regarding discussions of historical player and team compari-
sons. I view these efforts as a simple extension of basketball’s evolution as a game and form of sports entertainment. The coverage, play, excitement, organization and continued development of the game suggests no evidence of retreat.