Basketball Fun Facts

• James Naismith, a teacher at a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, is credited with inventing basketball in 1891.
• The first “hoops” were actually just peach baskets and the first backboards were made of wire.
• The game became an official Olympic event at the Summer Games in Berlin, Germany in 1936.
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who played 20 seasons in the NBA, holds the record for most points scored in a career with 38,387.
• Michael Jordan, who retired in January 1999 but returned to the league in 2001, has scored more points (5,987) in the playoffs than any other player
• The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a 10-team rival league to the NBA that began play in the 1967-68 season and folded nine years later after the 1975-76 season. Four current NBA teams – Indiana, Denver, New York, and San Antonio – originated in the ABA.