Author: savani dharti

December 21, 1891 first game of Basketball, based on rules created by 18 students in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) best players will feature at next year’s Tokyo Olympics even though the season could end just days before the Games get under way, Fiba secretary general Andreas Zagklis said on Wednesday.

The new NBA season will start next week, on Dec 22, with the regular season wrapping up on May 16 before the play-offs between May 22 and July 22.

The Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed by a year to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, kick off on July 23, with the basketball preliminaries starting two days later.Looking at the late finish of the last season’s playoffs and the following season, we had requested an in-depth discussion with the NBA and the NBA players association,” Zagklis, who heads basketball’s world body, said.

We explained what the repercussions are on the Olympic qualifying tournaments and the Olympic Games,” he told a virtual round table . He said the Olympic qualifying tournaments had been delayed by a week to late June following talks with the IOC to accommodate the late NBA season.I think we will have the best players available at the Olympic Games and Fiba is satisfied with that.

“I believe this means we will have at the Olympic qualifiers more than 85 per cent of the NBA players available and all teams will have finished in time for the Games,” he said.

“I think we will have the best players available at the Olympic Games and Fiba is satisfied with that.”

Since professional players were allowed to compete at the Olympics, beginning with the 1992 Games in Barcelona, the United States has won six out of seven gold medals with star-studded squads made up primarily of NBA players.With more than 100 international players in the NBA, other countries also have concerns over their availability for Olympic qualifiers and the Games themselves.

James Harden scored 12 points on 3-of-12 shooting in his preseason debut against the San Antonio Spurs.”He’s obviously a great player and can do so many things on the floor, on and off the ball. Defensively, he has great hands and makes plays and is smart. So to have him out there was great,” said Stephen Silas after the game.

Harden, who has yet to speak to the media since returning to the Rockets, declined to make himself available to reporters.

John Wall, who finished the game with 15 points and 3 assists, discussed the importance of focusing the attention back on the court.

“At the end of the day, he’s going to do what’s best for him and the organization is going to do what’s best for them also. The most important thing is when we step on that floor, we step into practice, we’re focusing ourselves on basketball,” said Wall.

The history of basketball began with its invention in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts  by Canadian physical education instructor James Naismith  as a less injury-prone sport than football. Naismith was a 31-year old graduate student when he created the indoor sport to keep athletes indoors during the winters.The game became established fairly quickly and grew very popular as the 20th century progressed, first in America and then in other parts of the world. After basketball became established in American colleges, the professional game followed. The American National basketball Association (NBA), established in 1946, grew to a multibillion-dollar enterprise by the end of the century, and basketball became an integral part of American culture.

The game of Basketball  as it is known today was created by Dr. James Naismith in December 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts, to condition young athletes during cold months. Naismith was a physical education instructor at YMCA International Training School (now known as Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts. Upon the request of his boss, Naismith was tasked to create an indoor sports game to help athletes keep in shape in cold weather.It consisted of peach baskets and a soccer style ball. He published 13 rules for the new game. He divided his class of eighteen into two teams of nine players each and set about to teach them the basics of his new game. The objective of the game was to throw the basketball into the fruit baskets nailed to the lower railing of the gym balcony. Every time a point was scored, the game was halted so the janitor could bring out a ladder and retrieve the ball. After a while, the bottoms of the fruit baskets were removed. The first public basketball game was played in Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1892.