Basketball Basics

Basketball is a collective and an indoor ball sport. Two rival teams, each with five players on the pitch, are trying to throw the ball into the opponent´s basket and prevent the opponents from scoring. The playing field is rectangular with a flat hard surface,  28 m long and 15 m wide, measured from the inside edge of the line. A basketball match consists of four quarters, and each quarter lasts 10 minutes. Between the 1st and 2nd and 3rd and 4th quarter, the break has 2 minutes; half-time break lasts 15 minutes.

 History of Basketball

 The first games that resembled today´s basket was played by Mayans, who called it Pok-Ta-Pol and Aztecs, who called this game Tlachtli. In both cases the main goal of the game was to throw the ball into the opponent´s basket. The team that lost was sometimes sacrificed to the gods.

 The form of basketball we know it today was developed by Dr. James A. Naismith, the Physical Education teacher at Springfield University, Massachusetts. He introduced the first 13 basic rules of basketball. It happened in the winter of 1891, when Naismith´s students were bored by gymnastics, and his students became excited about the new game. Naismith did not know that he invented an awesome sport phenomenon, which will be played by teams around whole world in less than 20 years.

 Basketball has expanded in the U.S. like no sport before and soon it was played at all universities and secondary schools. It did not take long for the sport to travel to Europe where it also had immediate success among the youth there.

 At first basketball was introduced as a demonstration sport in the Olympic games in 1904, St. Louis and in 1924, Paris. Basketball was officially involved to the Olympic games in 1936, Berlin.

 Basketball at our School

 You can also play basketball in our school, the Evangelical Lyceum Bratislava. This year “SPORTS” were led by professor Covel. Unfortunetly professor Covel is going to leave us to go back to the U.S. We all hope that someone, who will come from the U.S. to teach us, will have the same interest and passion for the sports as professor Covel has.