For the Love of Basketball: From A-Z

INTRODUCTION

Most popular American sports had their origins in the games of other lands, but one—basketball—is all-American. It was devised in 1891 in a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, by James Naismith, a physical-education teacher, as a way to keep his students active indoors during the winter months. While the game retains Naismith’s five-players-to-a-side format, its current version is as different from his original model as breakaway rims are from peach baskets. Today’s players are taller, stronger, and faster, shoot on the run, and contest rebounds above the rim as often as below it. Nowhere are their skills more evident than in the National Basketball Association, the world’s top professional league. From the 1950s’ Boston Celtics of BOB COUSY and BILL RUSSELL to the present-day exploits of KOBE BRYANT and LEBRON JAMES, nobody has done it better. Join us in visiting the heroes who have made NBA basketball the exciting game it is.

A is for A–J

Mister Abdul-Jabbar.

The teams that he led

Would always go far.

Kareem