Hoop Tales: NBA

Basketball is the rare major sport with a birth certificate. In December 1891, a physical education instructor named James Naismith nailed a peach basket to the balcony rail of a gymnasium in Springfield, Massachusetts, wrote thirteen rules, and gave his students something to do indoors through a New England winter. Nearly every other game we play evolved out of centuries of folk custom. This one was invented, on purpose, in an afternoon. The professional league that grew from it began just as practically—with a scheduling problem.