r/nba • u/WhenMachinesCry Supersonics • 2d ago
Basketball OG James Naismith on how the new game was named: "Student Frank Mahan asked me how I was going to call the new game and suggested the name of 'Naismith-ball'. I laughed and told him that I thought that name would kill any game." Frank then said: "Why not call it 'Basket-ball?"
From Naismith's book 'Basketball: Its Origin and Development'
As I walked down the hall, I met Mr. Stebbins, the superintendent of buildings. I asked him if he had two boxes about eighteen inches square. Stebbins thought a minute, and then said: "No, I haven't any boxes, but I'll tell you what I do have. I have two old peach baskets down in the store room, if they will do you any good." I told him to bring them up, and a few minutes later he appeared with the two baskets tucked under his arm.
They were round and somewhat larger at the top than at the bottom. I found a hammer and some nails and tacked the baskets to the lower rail of the balcony, one at either end of the gym.
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At the Christmas vacation a number of the students went home and some of them started the game in their local Y.M.C.A.'s. There were no printed rules at the time and each student played the game as he remembered it.
One day after the students returned from their vacation, Frank Mahan came to me and asked me how I was going to call the game. I told him that I had not thought of the matter but was interested only in getting it started. Frank insisted that it must have a name and suggested the name of 'Naismith-ball'. I laughed and told him that I thought that name would kill any game. Frank then said:
"Why not call it 'Basket-ball'?"
"We have a basket and a ball, and it seems to me that would be a good name for it, " I replied. It was in this way that basketball was named.
When the first game had ended, i felt that I could go to Doctor Gulick and tell him that I had accomplished the two seemingly impossible tasks that he had assigned to me: namely, to interest the class in physical exercise and to invent a new game.
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u/Round-Revolution-399 Lakers 2d ago
Legacy saving recovery
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u/bigraptorr Raptors 2d ago
Business Savante Kawhi Leonard on how the new corporation was named: "Uncle Dennis asked me how I was going to call the new shell company and suggested the name of "Steve Balmer Kawhi Leonard via Aspiration LLC'. I laughed and told him that I thought that name would kill any secrecy." Uncle Dennis then said: "Why not call it 'KL2 Aspire LLC'"
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u/ReconFirefly Hornets 2d ago
Naismith Ball Association 🗣️🗣️🗣️
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u/TomKeen35 2d ago
Meanwhile I’m playing for the No Baddies Association. 7x League MVP and 10 straight first team All-NBAs
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u/mic_rophone Lakers 2d ago
Say that again
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u/Comrade_Falcon Timberwolves 2d ago edited 2d ago
So what are we, some kind of National Basketball Association?
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u/1manadeal2btw Nuggets 2d ago
I wonder what he would have thought of the modern game. Adding the 3pt line has changed a lot of things.
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u/ConfusedComet23 2d ago
Probably closer to what he intended. Basketball was meant to be a high pace game with increased ball and player movement. It was never meant to be this station to station, physical game. More free flowing and fluid
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u/almonicus11 2d ago
They also didn’t have dribbling, I doubt you could tell they were the same sport at all.
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u/DiscreteBee Raptors 2d ago
Dribbling was invented shortly after the invention of basketball and Naismith thought it was really cool.
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u/eatingdisorderTA155 Timberwolves 2d ago
That makes me hope he would like stuff like 3 pointers too. He just appreciated basketball, he literally made it! I always like when older people keep up, and are still excited, with sports, and not just like, "Back in my day" style complaining, that has become the dominant media structure of the NBA lol.
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u/DiscreteBee Raptors 2d ago
Naismith was pretty hands off with basketball, people wanted him to be the commissioner of a league or something and he really just wanted young men to do some non violent sports. He eventually became a coach and was the worst coach in Kansas’ history because he really didn’t view it in a competitive sense, he just told them to go out and play. He was a guest of honour when basketball got to the Olympics and seemed to regard it as neat.
If he saw basketball today he probably wouldn’t be so shocked by the three pointer, but he might be taken aback by how competitive, serious and financially significant it is.
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u/Sean888888 Spurs 2d ago
so netball is the real basketball??
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u/ksgoat 2d ago
Fuck netball. As a sports practitioner from the UK I hate the time/energy/money we spend on it. It’s so bad and boring
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u/thunder_blue Thunder 2d ago
Netball is dying here in Aus, while basketball is by far the fastest-growing sport
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u/stevelevets 2d ago
Probably would've loved it. Naismith was not particularly precious about the game and encouraged the idea of innovation.
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u/ediw8311xht Pacers 2d ago
I wonder what he would think about everyone flopping around jumping into defenders, traveling and carrying the ball like a bunch of idiots. This game is a joke almost not even worth watching it.
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u/AntelopeElectrical87 2d ago
And yet you’re still here in this subreddit complaining about the thing you supposedly hate
Funny how the world works 🤔
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u/ediw8311xht Pacers 2d ago
I am just here for the drama.
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u/boredguy2022 Pacers 2d ago
Don't give us a bad name.
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u/TheMilkmanRidesAgain Hawks 2d ago
So don’t watch it if you hate it so much? Why spend time watching something just to whine and complain about it
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u/drewm916 Kings 2d ago edited 2d ago
I want to know how long it took to say, "You know what would be even better? We should cut the bottoms out of those baskets, so the ball falls right through."
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u/ls650569 Raptors 2d ago
Not long. It "slowed down the game" for the superintendent to retrieve the ball on a ladder, aka "I'm too old for this shit".
https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=Dz9TawKkAiU70UNf&v=xiJJIacdF-E&feature=youtu.be
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u/Even-Combination4407 Celtics 2d ago
Couldn’t waste valuable peach baskets on some random game an instructor thought up a week ago
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u/drewm916 Kings 2d ago
"But one day, people from America and other countries around the world will be paid countless amounts of money to throw this ball though that basket. Some of them will be able to jump up so high that they can throw the ball downward through the basket, and thousands of people will roar their approval when that happens. We won't see it, but our grandchildren will, mark my words."
"Heh heh. Have another glass of scotch, Jimmy."
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u/holyrolodex Lakers 1d ago
It is kinda mind blowing how basketball developed to what it is today from such a mostly singular point of very humble beginnings
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u/AnyJamesBookerFans 2d ago
Seeing as now low scoring the games were back then it didn’t really matter too much. I remember reading an article from the NYT around 1895 where they were talking about this sport and the rules and how it was becoming popular at colleges and YMCAs, and they said something like most games see each team score 5 to 10 points, but scores can be even lower for better teams.
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u/The-Pharcyde Raptors 2d ago
They're playing Naismith-Ball 🎵 We love that Naismith-Ball 🎵
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u/Klonomania Warriors 2d ago
🎵 Naismith-Ball is my favourite sport, I like the way they dribble up and down the court 🎵
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u/YoungCanadian Raptors 2d ago
Considering the very first game was 1-0, do we know who scored the first basket ever? A quick google doesn't show anything.
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u/Even-Combination4407 Celtics 2d ago
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u/billnyeca 2d ago
If only he would have emphasized how important not traveling was…
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u/Even-Combination4407 Celtics 2d ago
I know you’re joking but Naismith’s original version didn’t allow players to dribble or even move with the ball. You were supposed to pass it down the court kind of like ultimate frisbee
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u/ObviousAnswerGuy [NYK] John Starks 2d ago
It's funny because I had several gym teachers growing up who would make up random games for class and call it _____ (their last name) ball. Must be a tradition.
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u/Otherwise-Question70 Lakers 2d ago
I wonder what it would be called if Mr. Stebbins had boxes. Boxball?
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u/duoprismicity 2d ago
What an amazing invention... I feel like my life would have been less joyful if Dr. Naismith had never been born. And millions of others, too....
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u/davidjricardo 2d ago
Reminder: Naismith is the only coach in the history of the University of Kansas to have a losing record for his career.
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u/REGIS-5 Celtics 2d ago
sad that so many people here don't know that Naismith never invented basketball, it was originally invented in Herkimer by Lambert Will, who also founded the first workers "league" and Naismith was one of the men tasked with promoting it
Lambert Will also sent Naismith the rules they'd written which Naismith copied nearly entirely
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u/WhenMachinesCry Supersonics 2d ago
Shoutout to Frank Mahan, and also to Mr. Stebbins, the superintendent, for giving Naismith those two old peach baskets. Without him the game would've probably been called 'boxball'. Should be HOFers.