Basketball is an extremely popular team sport that is followed closely by sports news providers. The sport consists of two teams that compete against one another to get the maximum number of goals within a stipulated period of time. Both teams consist of five players each who try to score these points by passing the ball through the 10 foot high hoop also referred to as the goal. There certainly are a set of organized rules that these players must abide by.
Probably the most popular games across the world, points in basketball are scored by shooting the ball in the basket by the means of either throwing the ball from across a distance or by dunking or slamming the ball through the basket ring. The ball is advanced between players by passing it or by dribbling it. There are restrictions that foresee any disorderly physical contact or violating the means through which the ball is passed resulting in a foul.
At the end of the given time the team that creates the highest score is declared the winner, however, at times in case of a tie, an overtime or additional time may be provided to conclude the game.
There are several strategies that are carried out to advance the standing of the team and increase its probability of winning. Positioning of players, throwing and dribbling techniques, defense and offence strategies all play an extremely vital role in this. It is often seen that mostly the tallest player within the team is placed at the center or in the forward positions and the guard positions are provided to players that are good at handling the ball well or are high on speed.
Basketball originated in the initial 1800s and has significantly evolved since. Initially played with a soccer ball, the basketball design kept changing. Finally while in the 1950s the orange basketball was designed and has long been inplay.
Basketball too, just like American football, initially developed and rose to popularity as a college game. The 1st inter-college basketball match is said to held in 1895 in Hamline University. As basketball increasingly began to remain in sports news the necessity for a basketball association arose. This resulted in the formation of the Basketball Association of America in 1946. The name of this association was then changed to the National Basketball Association following its merger together with the National Basketball League in 1949.
The National Basketball Association or even the NBA as it is more popularly known consists of 30 teams from North America and zone team from Canada. The NBA is definitely the recognized governing body for basketball in the United States as decided by the International Basketball Federation. The regular NBA basketball season sees an overall total of 82 games being played by each team. Of these 41 games are played in the teams home base and the rest in other locations.
Probably the most comprehensive basketball sports news is provided in Sporting News, that is an American sports news magazine. It follows the NBA games closely and also gives an unofficial, yet very widely publicized, “Executive of the Year” award for the general manager of the best performing team.