Until 1929, basketball was played with a soccer ball. ¹⁾

The National Basketball Association (abbreviated NBA) is an American-Canadian professional basketball league. The league is an active member of USA Basketball, a division of the Fédération Internationale de Basketball in the United States. ²⁾

The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was established in 1946 and the first game was played between the Toronto Huskies and the New York Knickerbockers. The BAA and the National Basketball League (NBL) combined in 1949 and became the National Basketball Association. ³⁾

The NBA consists of 30 teams. They are separated into the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. There are three divisions of five teams at each conference. ⁴⁾

Each team in the NBA plays 82 regular-season games. They play 41 games at home and 41 away. During the season, every team in the NBA plays every other team at least once. ⁵⁾

There were only two games played on Christmas Eve throughout the entire history of the NBA: once in 1960, and again in 1967. ⁶⁾

In the early 1900s, basketball players played in cages made of wire and mesh to protect them from falling onto spectator seats. Players were often injured during intense games. ⁷⁾

Basketball is the second sport with the most injuries per player. Only American soccer is more dangerous. ⁸⁾

Canadian James Naismith (1861-1939) a physical education teacher from Springfield, invented the game of basketball in 1891 when he was looking for a way to occupy his gym class on a rainy day. ⁹⁾

Initially, dribbling was not a big part of the game. Players would catch the ball, have a few steps to slow down, stop, and then throw from that spot. After the invention of modern basketball in the 1950s, dribbling became a key part of the game. ¹⁰⁾

Originally, two teams of 9 players played in a basketball game, and this number was based on the standard number of players on a baseball team. ¹¹⁾

The longest game in basketball history lasted 78 minutes and was played between the Rochester Royals and Indianapolis Olympians on 06/01/1952. ¹²⁾

The eight founding nations of FIBA (Fédération internationale de basketball amateur) are Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, and Switzerland. FIBA was founded in Geneva on June 18, 1932. ¹³⁾

Wilt Chamberlain holds the record for scoring the most points during a single basketball game. On March 2, 1962, he scored 100 points. ¹⁴⁾

Basketball first became part of the Olympic Games during the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. The Olympic basketball games were then held outdoors on modified tennis courts. ¹⁵⁾

Tom Amberry is best known for holding the Guinness World Basketball Record for the number of free throws made, having made 2,750 of them in a row in 12 hours on a single day in 1993 at the age of 71. ¹⁶⁾