History of Basketball

The history of basketball is much easier to trace than other sports. It is clear that Dr. James Naismith is credited with creating basketball and much of basketball history. Dr. Naismith, born in 1861 in Ontario, Canada first came up with the concept of basketball during his youth school days in the area where he played a game that involved knocking a rock off an object by attempting to throw another rock at it. The game obviously evolved from there and began the history of basketball.

Mr. Naismith taught at the YMCA School in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891, where the sport of basketball was created. He was faced with a problem of finding a sport that could be played indoors during the harsh Massachusetts winters. He needed to come up with a game that could be played in and outdoors and one that adopted a sense of skill and not just brawn. He first developed the game by involving a soccer ball and two peach baskets, who would have ever thought basketball history, could come from a soccer ball.

In addition to creating basketball Dr. Naismith became a medical doctor focused on sports science and was a minister. Naismith watched his sport grow to become one of the world's most popular sports that saw its entrance in the Olympics in 1936 at Berlin and he fixed himself a spot in basketball history.

The history of basketball began with teams of five and was the sports standard by 1897. The sport became popular to both men and women and began to spread throughout Canada and the US. The US servicemen took the sport overseas with them in WWII and the history of basketball became global.

U.S. colleges accepted the game and began to have it as a standard college sport. College basketball history took off around the late 1890's and the first college game began at the Madison Square Garden in New York.

Professional basketball history first began when the National Basketball League was created in the late 1800's around 1898. The league however did not last and was broken up after 5 years providing a rough start to basketball history. The break up just led to a number of random leagues forming themselves in the early 1900's and each was very loosely organized. Ironically enough the first super team was the Celtics but they were from New York City not Boston. The famous Harlem globetrotters were also founded around this time in 1927 and hold a place in basketball history as being the most entertaining of basketball teams.

It wasn't until 1949 that two professional basketball leagues the NBL and the BAA merged to create what we all know now as the National Basketball Association or the NBA. The Boston Celtics dominated the NBA from the late 1950s through the 1960s. By the 1960s, professional teams had formed throughout the United States and basketball was a mainstream powerhouse. Players such as Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russel and Kareem Abdul-Jabar all became household names that drew millions to watch them play as they all found a spot in basketball history.

National Basketball Association fell off the charts and was surpassed by football in popularity through the 1970's then got a resurgence from the popular Larry Bird and Magic Johnson era. Michael Jordan carried the league through the eighties and nineties and the torch has been passed on to Shaquille O'neal, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James. The history of basketball has never been so fascinating and it is all thanks to Dr. James Naismith.

All about Magic Johnson

Born Earvin Johnson, Jr. on August 14, 1959, in Lansing, Michigan, Magic Johnson was a point guard for the NBA and widely revered as the best in basketball history. Having won championships in high school, college, professional, and international levels, his professional career ended after thirteen seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers. During this stint, he won five NBA Championships and was named to the All-Star team twelve times. His induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame took place in 2002.

Magic Johnson is also well known as one of the first public figures to make public his HIV-positive status, which he uses to the advantage of others, promoting education and awareness of the disease and the truth about how it can be spread. His announcement took place on November 7, 1991, shocking Americans with this news and the combined announcement of his official immediate retirement from basketball.

Though officially retired and having not played a single game during the 1991-92 season, he returned to the sport to play a final All-Star game due to being voted to the team. Johnson's West team dominated and outshined the East with the final score of 153-113, Johnson scoring 25 points and nine assists. The game earned him is second All-Star Most Valuable Player Award, after which he continued his career by playing for the 1992 Olympic Dream Team with fellow superstars Larry Bird and Michael Jordan. The team was undefeated, won the Olympic Gold, and is revered as one of the greatest collections of basketball talent.
Johnson announced his return to basketball for the 1992-93 season, though after practicing during the preseason, he opted out of seasonal play and went back into retirement. He made two other returns to basketball later, entering as a coach for the final sixteen games of the 1993-94 season in the stead of Randy Pfund. After winning only five of those games and not even leading the team into the playoffs, he chose not to coach the following season. Again in 1995-96, Magic returned to basketball as a player, late in the season. He played the final 32 games of the season, and, after the team lost the first round of the playoffs, he retired for the last time.
He continues to make charitable appearances on the court, and he's pursued the ownership of two basketball clubs, one Swedish and one Scandinavian. He's played a few games in the Summer Pro League (played just prior to the start of the NBA season and consisting mostly of NBA rookies and sometimes more well known players looking to get in shape), as well as a few games with the teams he owned, though he was injured in a game with his Scandinavian team and prevented from playing any more games.

Lucas Oil Stadium - Home of the Indianapolis Colts and the 2012 Superbowl

The 2012 Superbowl is played at the Lucas Oil Stadium. The stadium is a retractable roof stadium located in Indianapolis, Indiana which opened in the second half of 2008. The new stadium replacesd the RCA Dome which was the long time home of the Colts. This stadium was constructed in preparation for the Super Bowl XLVI to be held in 2012. Aside from the stadium, a new high-rise JW Marriot Indianapolis was constructed as part of the preparation for the Super Bowl.

The architectural firm behind the design of the new stadium is HKS, Inc. with Walter P. Moore as the structural engineer. Similar to other stadium, the Lucas Oil Stadium has a retractable roof and window wall which allows the Colts to play outdoors. The concept of kinetic architecture was utilized in the design of the stadium for it to be a multi-functional facility with the ease of conversion for an increased return of investment.

The rights to name the stadium was purchased by Lucas Oil for approximately $120 million for 20 years, thus it is fondly nicknamed as The Luke by some commentators. Despite the state-of-the-art facilities of the new home of the Indianapolis Colts, a retro look is inculcated in the design as a result of Indianapolis's liking of a field house appearance of sports venues which were popular a few decades ago. The construction of the stadium costs $720 million which was raised through a cooperative effort from the government of Indiana and the Colts.

The seating capacity of the new stadium for football games is 5,000 more than the old one. Now, 63,000 fans can watch from the sidelines during the game. In the event that Indiana will host the Super Bowl, this seating capacity can be increased to 70,000. For basketball games, the seating capacity of the facility can go beyond 70,000. Features of the new stadium includes two huge Daktronics HD scoreboards each measuring 97 feet wide and 53 feet tall and located in the northwest and southeast corners of the stadium.

The retractable roof of the Lucas Oil Stadium was designed by Uni-Systems. The roof divides lengthwise into two retractable panels, each sliding down the slope of the roof of the stadium when it is open. Each panel weighs 2.7 million pounds each. It takes nine minutes for the roofs to open, twelve minutes for it to close and is fully automated at that. What is unique about these retractable roofs is that it is the first ever roof that divides lengthwise. However, the entire stadium is not waterproof so the roofs remain close for most of the year.

A peculiar addition to the stadium's design is the large moveable window wall that allow additional light while closed and gives a more open environment when open. This is another first for that stadium since it is the largest movable glass wall in the world. The first NBC Sunday Night Football of the 2008 NFL Season was played in the Lucas Oil Stadium. Unfortunately, the home team wasn't able to grab the win.

 

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Super Bowl, Super Numbers!

In America we use almost any occasion or event to throw a party. The Super Bowl is one of the top party days of the year and who can blame us for wanting to live it up just before March Madness?!! Even the most passive NFL fans can take joy in celebrating the lifting of the Lombardi Trophy. This year's game takes place at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana and unfortunately EVERY football fan in the country just won't fit into the place.

Even during a recession, NFL fans spare little expense when it comes to the food and snacks that are made available on Super Bowl Sunday. Last year, Americans consumed over 30 million pounds of chips, hot dogs, BBQ, dips, nachos, chicken wings and whatever artery-clogging product you can think of. And here's an example of just how much 30 million pounds of food is;

· 1 billion chicken wings
· 293 million miles of potato chips (if laid end to end)
· If you spread out guacamole dip on a football field the amount consumed would be nearly 12 feet high

And believe it or not we like to drink beer on Super Bowl Sunday. A lot of beer. Americans will consume over 320 million gallons of beer on game day. That's enough to fill almost 300 Olympic sized swimming pools. All that food and all that beer wind up causing seven million people to call in "sick" to work on the following Monday and the sales numbers for ant-acids jumps roughly 20%. Those are giant statistics and it goes to show just how enamored the populous is with the Super Bowl. According to statistics, the average Super Bowl party is planned over a month in advance, with over 20 million people attending those parties. With all that food, beer, and partying is it any wonder that only 5% of people who watch the Super Bowl watch it alone? And with all the people who are attending parties you know that many of them don't give a hoot about NFL football until the main event. 40% of the people who watch the game will have not watched the NFL during the regular season.

Since we are doing so many numbers, I'll give you a little more to ponder and be amazed with. The preparation of the 30 million pounds of food on Super Bowl Sunday takes approximately 10 million man-hours. That's a lot of time spent sipping beer and basting hot wings! And if you want to compare that with something for perspective, consider that it also took 10 million man-hours (over a span of four years) to make the Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar"!

 

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