BASKETBALL FUN FACTS

          Even when I was still a young kid, I was already a sports buff. Among so many sports, basketball has become my favorite even at  a  young age. When we were still young and during break time in school, I and my classmates used to play it even just for a limited time. Inspired by its wonderful world, I religiously followed its every professional game in our country on television and on sports magazines. It was so famous that everywhere one can witness both old and young alike playing it on various kinds of courts such as cemented, asphalted, etc.

          Hence with such as background, it is with enormous joy to share with you some of its interesting 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.
• Two leagues called the National Basketball League (NBL) and the Basketball Association of America (BAA) merged after the 1948-49 season to become today's National Basketball Association (NBA).
• The Boston Celtics have won the most NBA championships (17), including seven straight from 1960 to 1966.
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who played 20 seasons in the NBA, holds the record for most points scored in a career with 38,387.
• On March 2, 1962, Philadelphia center Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in one game against New York. That is the most one player has ever scored in one game.
• Current Atlanta Hawks coach Lenny Wilkens has won more basketball games than any other coach.
• 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.
• The NBA instituted the three-pointer before the 1979-80 season, an idea it borrowed from the ABA.
• The Chicago Bulls have won all six NBA Finals in which they've appeared.
  

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• 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 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is located in Springfield, Mass.

                               (Source: www.factmonster.com)

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23 Mar. 2013 .