When people play basketball, they usually don't think about history. They don't think about who created it, who is the leader in assists, steals, blocks, points and rebounds in the entire history of sports. Did they know that it was illegal to dunk just because of one person, and that he quickly became the leading scorer of all time? Who created the name “slam dunk”? When was the first basketball game? Who was on the first basketball team and how many players were on a team? In 1891, YMCA activities director Dr. James Naismith had 14 days to create an activity for winter play. He told people to split into two teams of nine, based on baseball. Naismith tried indoor versions of football, lacrosse, and soccer, and they all failed (the irony being that all three sports would eventually have indoor versions), mainly because each attempt caused damage, in especially on windows. Naismith decided to create a game with less violence, a game that was less of a contest of strength and more of a contest of skill. Late one night, on the last day of the two weeks he was given, he created a set of 13 rules for basketball (basketball was two separate words when it was created). When Naismith arrived one day, he put two baskets of peaches on the second floor, which was about ten feet tall, and a ball. He established many things still used today, including the concept of "moving", "goalkeeping", fouls and even the rule that a ball must be thrown inbounds within five seconds . (http://www.ymca.int/who-we-are/history/basketball-a-ymca-invention/)The original 13 rules (nbahoopsonline.com/History/13rules.html) were:1. The ball can be thrown in any direction with one or both hands.2. The ball can be...... middle of paper...... Works Cited: 1. http://www.ymca.int/who-we-are/history/basketball-a-ymca-invention 2. http://www.nba.com/history/dreamT_moments.html 3. http://www. nba.com/draft2002/history/history_84draft.htm