Have you wondered how the Basketball game ‘was born’? In the article you can find all the interesting facts about the very first attempts to creating the game.

In December 1891, Canadian – James Naismith, a physical education teacher at Springfield College, Massachusetts, was trying to create activities for his students in a rainy day. He was looking for active play indoors, which to engage them and maintain their physical form during long winters in New England. The teacher described the basic rules and nailed a peach basket to a height of 10 feet. Unlike today’s basketball baskets, the first basket was not with pierced bottom, and the ball must be removed from it after each point.

At the very beginning, basketball has been played with a soccer ball. The first balls specially designed for basketball were brown. The usual orange ball was introduced in the late 50s by Tony Hinkle, who wanted to make the ball better visible to the players and the audience. Dribbling has become an essential part of the game in the 50s when the produced balls were with proper form. Peach baskets were used until 1906 when they were replaced by metal hoops with panel behind them, and a little later it has become possible to pass the ball through the basket.

The Naismith’s diaries were discovered by his granddaughter in 2006 and showed that he was worried about the game created by him, because he had borrowed some rules of the old children’s game. Naismith had given the name of the game – “Basket Ball”. The first official game was played in the gym of the Springfield College on 20th January 1892 with nine players. It ended with the final score 1:0 with a point, scored by 7,6 m., the field was two times less than today. Five-member teams had become standard in 1897-1898.

The first national championship in the United States was organized in 1937 by the National Association of College basketball. In the next year has been created a national invitational tournament in New York, and in 1939 it has been organized another national championship, called NCAA. Between 1948 and 1951, the University basketball is rocked by scandals, involving betting, in which dozens of players of the top teams were implicated in fixing and adjusting points. Then the national invitational tournament is terminated and only the NCAA championship continued to be held. That was an interesting true story, which now sounds like a fairy tale. Can you imagine a game with just 1 point in it?

The new season in the National Basketball Association of the United States and Canada began in the best way to the best player in 2015 – Stephen Curry and his team Golden State. The champions won 111-95 over New Orleans and Curry scored 40 points for success.

Before the game in the Hall of the Warriors ‘Oracle Arena’ the championship banner of the team for season 2014/15 was raised and the players received their championship rings.

The good mood among the fans spilled over the field as Stephen Curry started the match on fire and scored 24 in the first quarter. His good performance allowed Golden State to lead at the break with an advance of 10 points (59:49) and eventually the difference reached 23 points.

With his 40 points in the game, Curry set several records. He became the first player in the last 20 years who scored 24 points in the first quarter of the first game of the season. Furthermore, Stephen Curry became current MVP who scored the most points in the first game of the season after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who scored 41 for the Milwaukee Bucks in the first game of the 1963/64 season.

Besides Curry, a valuable contribution to the success of Golden State had the centres Festus Ezeli and Andrew Bogut. Ezeli scored 13 points, while Bogut scored 12 and didn’t miss any of his shots to the basket, but then he left the game in the third part due to the arcade above the right eyebrow after a head-on collision with Dante Cunningham of New Orleans.

In the most controversial match of the opening day, Chicago achieved minimal victory – 97:95 over the finalist in the last season, Cleveland. The meeting was attended by the President Barack Obama, who is known as a fan of the Bulls.

During the entire match, the game went equal, as the hosts had kept minimal advance from the first quarter. And then in the final moments of the match, three seconds before the final siren LeBron James had an attempt to score for 97:97, but was parried by the Spanish centre of the Bulls Pau Gasol. The top scorer for Chicago was Nikola Mirotic with 19 points. Derrick Rose added 18 and Jimmy Butler scored 17 points.

In the last match of the night, Detroit surprisingly achieved an away win against the champions of the regular season – Atlanta (106: 94). The guests improved their performance shortly before the halftime, and they even lead by 19 points at the beginning of the third part. In the little time remaining to the end of the game, Atlanta started to play better, but failed to melt the big difference. Top scorer for Detroit was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who scored 21 points and Andre Drummond, who finished with 18 points and 19 rebounds. Dennis Schroeder scored 20 points for Atlanta and Paul Milsap added 19.

All the results from the opening day:
Atlanta 94:106 Detroit
Chicago 97:95 Cleveland
Golden State 111:95 New Orleans

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Euro Basket 2011 was the 37th continental championship, organized by FIBA Europe. The host nation was Lithuania and this was the second European championship, hosted by the country. Euro Basket is considered to be the largest sporting event in the history of the Baltic states.

The number of the teams, which took part in the tournament, was 24 (8 more than the previous European Basketball Championship). The played games in Euro Basket were 90, which is again the highest number. The organization was at a top level; there were six host cities in Lithuania: Kaunas, Vilnius, Siauliai, Panevezys, Alytus and Klaipeda.

The teams have been drawn into four groups (six teams per group). Then the first three from each group passed through into another two groups. After this, there were quarter finals and so on. The pleasant surprise of the tournament was Macedonia, which country went to the semi-finals, but eventually finished in the fourth position. However, that was a great success for the Macedonian basketball.

Great performance, shown by the UK team, but not enough for qualifying for the second group stage. Great Britain won against Portugal and Poland, but the defeats of Turkey, Lithuania and the champions Spain left us in the fourth place of Group A.

The host nation – Lithuania finished at the fifth place in the final standings of the tournament. ‘The Second Religion’ recorded 8 victories and 3 defeats, but their loss 65-67 to Macedonia at the quarter finals costed their elimination from the battle for the first place.

But let’s talk about the winners – Spain. The European Champions were in a difficult group with teams like Turkey, Great Britain, Poland, Portugal and the host nation – Lithuania. The Spaniards showed a great performance and didn’t have problems with qualifying for the next round. Their only loss was surprisingly against Turkey (57-65).

In the next round Spain proved they’re pure class, beating Germany (77-68), Serbia (84-59) and France (96-69). After these three matches the question was if there is any team to stop them in their run to the title. In the quarter finals, Spain easily beat Slovenia 86-64, then won against Macedonia in the semi-finals. The final match was Spain against France. In the second group stage the Spaniards weren’t troubled by the Frenchmen, recording an easy victory. But now, the things were different. Eventually, Spain won 98-85 and got their second European Basketball Championship title.

In conclusion, we can say that it was a great tournament with a high number of points scored and tough battle between the teams. Every single team wanted the title, but there was only one winner – Spain. That was their second continental title. For The Most Valuable Player of the tournament was picked Barcelona’s player Juan Carlos Navarro. The most productive player was Frenchmen Tony Parker (22.1 points per game on average). Another prize for the Spaniards was ‘the most productive’ team – 85.2 points per game. So, what can I say – the best team won the tournament, just like it happens in the fairy tales.

The European basketball is much more different by the most famous basketball league in America – NBA. The matches between national teams are filled with more emotions and the players are performing at the limit of their capabilities, showing their motivation to defend the honour of their country.

I guess that you have heard about The European Basketball Championship. If you consider yourself as a basketball fan you must see again and again these fascinating games of one of the most competitive tournaments in the world. If you wonder what makes Euro Basket 2011 so unique, in the next few articles I will help you find out. The new format of the tournament made it even more attractive to the basketball fans. The number of the teams was 24 instead of 16. Also, the matches were much more (90).

Let me feed your appetite in the very beginning. The history of the Euro Basket tournaments is very interesting. Did you know that the African country, Egypt has participated 7 times in the competition? The most interesting fact is that the Egyptians even won the Euro Basket in 1949 when they hosted it in Cairo. The team with the highest number of titles is the Soviet Union (14). The last sentence comes to show you why Lithuania has ‘inherited’ these qualities and traditions in the basketball (as a former Soviet republic). So, if you want to find news, stats and any information you need about the Euro Basket 2011 – you are at the right place.

If you need more information about the competition – I will be here for you. I will write all the interesting stats and fact about the tournament and the most important thing I can provide you with – my analysis. So, just be my guests and read the articles about Euro Basket 2011.

My name is Adam and I am a big basketball fan. I hope you will enjoy my analysis of the most interesting European basketball competition – Euro Basket 2011. I will also provide you with the most recent basketball news.

I like checking the basketball stats and after watching and analysing all the games of the Euro Basket 2011, it became my favourite tournament. First, because there were more teams (24) and then because all the teams’ strengths were so equal. The matches were so entertaining that I felt it was my obligation to write about them in my blog, so here we are.

You can also find in the blog different news about the NBA and the American college league. But the most interesting to me are the competitions where national teams take part. I feel these matches are more competitive and the players are trying to represent their country by the best possible way.

So, if you are a basketball fan, this is the right place for you. You can read the latest news and share your opinion with the others. Also, you can find many historical facts and players’ stats. Be my guests and share the joy of this fascinating game, called basketball.