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National Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is the highest-level professional basketball league in North America. Today, every NBA franchise is worth at least $1B.
Basketball was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith, who hung two peach baskets at either end of a gym. By 1895, the new sport was on college campuses and became an Olympic sport in 1936. The Basketball Association of America was formed in 1946 and merged with the National Basketball League in 1949, creating today’s NBA.
In 1987, commissioner David Stern started shipping VHS tapes of games to state-run TV stations in China and opened an NBA office there by 1992. When the Olympics allowed professional basketball players to participate in the 1992 Games, Stern used the opportunity to showcase the NBA. The 1992 “Dream Team” won gold and is considered the greatest team ever assembled, helping turn the NBA into an international product.
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Generally, NBA basketball teams whose players touch each other more win more gamesThis 2010 research finding underscores the importance of touch in promoting trust, bonding, and cooperation, thereby apparently improving team success. Touch also promotes cooperation in other settings: In a separate "prisoner's dilemma" study, when the experimenter gently touched some participants with a quick pat on the back, the touched individuals were more likely to cooperate and share with their partner. The 2016 Men's National Championship game is regarded as one of the best basketball games of all timeVillanova's Kris Jenkins hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to beat North Carolina 77-74, capping a finish that included Carolina's Marcus Paige tying the game with 4.7 seconds left, making it widely regarded as one of the greatest championship games ever played. March Madness The CD whose rates change based on Villanova basketball gamesArdent Credit Union in Philadelphia tied the interest rates of one of its certificates of deposit to whether Villanova won or lost a basketball game. A win moved the rate to 4.25%, while a loss reduced it to 3.9%. Financial experts say its only beneficial for a narrow group InvestopediaMontana's Fort Shaw Indian Boarding School was home to a world champion girls' basketball teamIn 1904, the school, featuring players from multiple tribes in Montana and Idaho, won the championship at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition (also known as the St. Louis World Fair). PBS LearningMediaThe first US Olympic basketball team was made up of amateurs from company teamsIn 1936, the first year the Olympics featured basketball, the US squad featured players from two companies: an oil refinery in Kansas and Universal Pictures in Hollywood. WBURUnderstanding college basketball's guru, UCLA's John WoodenJohn Wooden coached UCLA to an unprecedented 10 NCAA titles, including seven straight from 1967 to 1973. He studied the characteristics that made people successful and, in 1948, created his iconic triangular diagram with 25 common behaviors. This article unpacks the 25-block framework that makes the "Pyramid of Success" and shows how Wooden's off-court wisdom shaped future champs like Bill Walton and Steve Kerr. Coach John WoodenHow Title IX changed college basketballUntil Title IX was passed in 1972, the NCAA had little interest in women's sports because it didn't see them as profitable. This article explores how the AIAW was formed to govern women's basketball, and the massive fight the NCAA eventually put up to take over in 1982. Read about the legal battles it took, and how much money women's basketball is bringing to the NCAA now. FightingIllini.comThe betting scandal that rocked college basketballIn the 1940s and '50s, illegal bookmaking in college basketball was rampant at Madison Square Garden. In the 1949-50 season, City College of New York players shaved points during games, though they played honestly in the NIT and NCAA tournaments, winning both. This OddsShark.com article explores how the points-shaving scandal was exposed, who went to jail, and its impact on the NIT and CCNY. OddsSharkWhat makes Nikola Jokic a basketball geniusNikola Jokic is widely considered one of the greatest players in the NBA and this detailed exploration of his singular mind shows why, identifying Jokic’s superpower—viewing the court like a chessboard—and helpfully pulling out plenty of footage to definitively prove the point. The RingerThe history of the NIT, college basketball's other tournamentWhen people refer to March Madness, they're referring to the annual NCAA tournament, the most popular event in college basketball. Often overlooked is the National Invitational Tournament, or NIT, which is viewed as a consolation prize for teams that fail to earn bids to the NCAA. However, the NIT began as the premier tournament until it was eventually beaten out (and ultimately acquired) by its competitor. Sports IllustratedWhy Serbia produces great basketball playersThe NBA phenom Nikola Jokić isn't an anomaly. Serbia and other Balkan countries have produced generations of talented basketball players. This history of the region's approach to basketball explains why. It details a community-minded approach to the sport called "positionless basketball” that emphasizes dynamic multi-talented players rather than specialized superstars. TIMEBerenson's frailty led her to basketballWhen Senda Berenson tried to study piano at school, she realized she was too frail. In 1890, she dropped piano and enrolled in the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics to increase her strength, which led her to a career in physical education. The West End MuseumSenda Berenson Abbott revolutionized women's basketballIn the late 1800s, college physical education programs were used to prepare post-Victorian Era women for the workforce. In 1890, Smith College built one of the country's largest and most well-equipped gyms and hired Senda Berenson to run its activities, which she did by revising basketball's rules so women could play while still meeting societal expectations. Kathryn LeeChuck Taylors were once the definitive basketball sneakersBefore Michael Jordan and the Air Jordans became the iconic shoe of the league, Chuck Taylor high tops were considered the best basketball sneaks. Need proof? The 1936 US Olympic team wore matching Converse. Urban IndustryThe original basketball was hand-sewnWhen the first basketball landed in a peach basket in 1891, it didn't look like the leather Wilson ball you see on today's NBA courts. The basketball evolved from the nondribbling days, when a hand-sewn ball with stitching like a football was used. Rebound RewindThe inclusion of NBA stars in the '92 Olympics changed basketball's global standingThe Olympics finally permitted professional basketball players to play in 1992 Summer Games and the NBA produced one of the greatest basketball teams ever assembled: The Dream Team. Billions worldwide watched Jordan, Bird, and Magic dominate to win gold, inspiring future Hall of Famers and increasing the NBA's viewership. USA TODAYBasketball was invented in 1891 by Dr. James NaismithWhen Dr. James Naismith hung two peach baskets at either end of a Springfield College gymnasium, he was just looking to keep the school’s athletes occupied and safe during harsh New England winters, but the game he created would quickly turn out to be a national sensation. Springfield CollegeFind out the difference between prediction markets, sports betting, and investingAs one expert put it, "investing is a long-term strategy to build wealth over time, speculation is an attempt to predict the future, and gambling is a game of luck." KiplingerWhat it means to call a bracket 'chalk'If the tournament is rather boring, you might hear a curious word getting thrown around: "chalk." In short, it means that the favorites have been winning. The word's origins go back to horse racing and its sportsbooks, where bookies would post odds on chalkboards. Over time, the bookies came to be known as "chalk" and, years later, tournaments (and their brackets) that seemed to favor those bookies earned the name, too. Vocabulary.comThe odds of a perfect March Madness bracket are worse than finding one specific grain of sand on EarthWith 63 games to predict, random guessing produces odds of 1 in 9.2 quintillion. Even an informed picker who gets 67% of games right faces odds of about 1 in 120 billion, meaning if every American filled out a unique bracket, we'd expect a perfect one in roughly 366 years. NCAAThe 2024 women's national championship between Iowa and South Carolina drew nearly 19 million viewersFueled by Caitlin Clark's star power in her final college game, the South Carolina-Iowa championship peaked at 24 million viewers, more than the men's final that year, making it the most-watched basketball game of any kind in five years. ESPNIn 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to a health conditionGehrig's diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that now bears his name, forced him to retire early. Weeks later, he spoke with gratitude and stated, "For the past two weeks, you have been reading about a bad break. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." Gehrig died at the age of 37, about two years later. David Stern brought the NBA to ChinaIn 1987, he started shipping VHS tapes of games to state-run TV stations in China, and opened an NBA office there by 1992. Today, China is the league’s second-largest market. ESPN.comThe Harlem Globetrotters played their first game in 1927Black players were not permitted on the existing professional basketball teams, but Abe Saperstein—the team's original coach, owner, manager, and sometimes player—leaned into the team's all-Black roster, nodding to New York's historically Black neighborhood even though the team didn't play there until the late 1960s. HISTORYEvery day, lightning releases several Hiroshima bombs' worth of energy into the atmosphereIf all this lightning struck one location at once, the bolt would be the diameter of the center circle of a basketball court, turning the entire court into a crater. Its heat would ignite surfaces for miles around, and its shockwave would demolish buildings. xkcd's What If?Some athletes warm up with equipment from other sportsBaseball superstar Shohei Ohtani uses a cricket bat; his teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws a javelin. Quarterback CJ Stroud shoots free throws. The reasons are partially physical (it's good to exercise different parts of your body) and partially mental (it's nice to take the pressure off with someone else's game). InsideHookFantasy sports began in the 1860s“Sebring Parlor Base Ball,” a tabletop board game in which players flicked a coin as if they were hitters is believed to be the first game that allowed players to imagine themselves as athletes without actually taking part in physical activities. John Thorn'I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.'- Baseball legend Babe Ruth (1895-1948) Quote FancyA quote by Magic Johnson"Celebrate the life you had, not the life you could've had." A-Z QuotesThe government has said Title IX does not protect transgender athletes or apply to athlete payIn early 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender women from college athletics, suggesting the move was in line with Title IX compliance. A week later, the Department of Education said Title IX does not require equitable distribution of name, image, and likeness payments to athletes. Both instances reverse former President Joe Biden’s interpretations of the law. ESPN.comSome opponents of Title IX wanted exemptions for revenue-producing sportsOne of the main arguments against Title IX was that it would unfairly punish revenue-generating sports like football and men’s basketball. Senator John Tower (R-TX) proposed exempting those sports from Title IX’s reach. His amendment failed, but the push for a similar modification to the law continued through the decades. The New York TimesHow baseball shaped Black America during ReconstructionA cornerstone of the budding Black culture following the Civil War was baseball, with several clubs springing up in Black neighborhoods and leaders like Frederick Douglass cheering on the players, including his son, who played for a team in Washington. This detailed history of the early Black leagues unpacks how the game enhanced the upwardly mobile community—and why that fact led to the segregation of what would become Major League Baseball. Literary Hub20 years of NCAA buzzersThe last few beats of the March Madness title game are among the most thrilling in sports. This video compilation collects the final five seconds of every women's championship from the first year of the tournament through 2022. The result is a fascinating document of celebrations, disappointments, and last-ditch efforts. It's also objective proof that basketball's style has evolved considerably over the decades. March MadnessWhen Magic Johnson and Larry Bird faced off in the 1979 NCAA finalMichigan State's Magic Johnson topped Indiana State's Larry Bird 75-64 in the 1979 NCAA final with a record 35.1 million watching. Aired on NBC, the duel of future NBA icons ignited college basketball's TV boom. This article revisits the rivalry's roots, the Sycamores' Cinderella run, and a prime-time leap that turned March Madness into a national frenzy. NCAAHow one Texas Western team changed college hoopsTexas Western, featuring college basketball's first all-Black starting five, stunned No. 1 Kentucky in 1966. Coach Don Haskins shrugged off the issue of race, but he received 40,000 pieces of hate mail after the game. This in-depth history relives the Miners' speed-driven triumph, their snub from Ed Sullivan, and a quiet revolution that sparked integration across the South's courts. Indianapolis StarThe history of March Madness bracketsEvery spring, millions of Americans fill out their March Madness brackets in hopes of picking the winner. But where did this annual tradition start? This CBS News article tells the story of how a bar in Staten Island started a $10 pool with 88 participants in 1977, and grew it into a $1.5 million contest that ended up getting shut down by the IRS. CBS NewsThe surprisingly poetic origins of the phrase 'March Madness'When legendary sportscaster Brent Musberger called the 1982 NCAA basketball tournament "March Madness," the term stuck and helped popularize the annual event. But he wasn't the first to use the phrase. This Time magazine article explores the contributions of Henry V. Porter, who originally used "March madness" in a 1939 article about the Illinois State basketball tournament, and later in a 1942 poem called "Basketball Ides of March." TIMEThe story of the 1996 Women's Olympic Dream TeamThe 1996 US Women’s Basketball Team went 60-0 on their gold medal run and is considered one of the greatest basketball teams ever assembled. The ESPN documentary “30 for 30: Dream On” examines the team’s 14-month journey, which changed the landscape of women’s sports. WNYC’s Alison Stewart interviews Director Kristen Lappas and Dream Team member Carla McGhee about their experience. WNYCDocumenting the first year of the WNBAThe WNBA was launched in 1997, providing a historic opportunity for women’s basketball. Two weeks after the WNBA kicked off its inaugural season, NBC aired this hourlong documentary, giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the league’s first games. The documentary also looks at the first pro league, the All-American Red Heads, and provides stories of the premier players in the WNBA. Matty Brown VHS ArchivesAnn Meyers Drysdale was the first female athlete to receive a full sports scholarshipIn 1974, Ann Meyers Drysdale earned a full ride to play basketball at UCLA. It was historic, but only the beginning of her pioneering life, which included a Silver Medal at the 1976 Summer Games and a contract with an NBA team in 1979. Arizona PBSThe All-American Red Heads were the first pro women's teamFormed in 1936, the barnstorming team played more than 200 games a year around the country. Much like the Harlem Globetrotters, the Red Heads combined basketball and comedy. Sports IllustratedThe undefeated 1996 Olympic squad is one of the greatest teams everWith stars like Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, and Rebecca Lobo, the 1996 US Women’s Basketball Team is considered one of the greatest women’s basketball teams ever assembled. They went 52-0 in pre-Olympic competition and 8-0 during their gold medal run. ESPNThe history of the WNBA in 60 secondsWomen’s basketball began in 1892, less than a year after the sport’s invention, but restrictive clothing and societal norms posed early challenges. Senda Berenson modified rules to make the game more “suitable,” limiting dribbling and court movement. By 1971, women began playing with rules similar to men’s, and Title IX in 1972 provided federal funding, opening doors for future athletes. 1440The NBA, explainedFrom humble beginnings in 1891, basketball transformed into the global juggernaut we know today. The NBA, established in 1949 and later revitalized by Commissioner David Stern in the 1980s, became a model for sports branding, player marketing, and international expansion. 1440Major League Baseball, explainedMajor League Baseball is America’s oldest professional sports league. Alongside triumphs, the league has faced scandals, including drug abuse and steroid use, shaping its path over the decades. Today, MLB embraces new rules, international talent, and a growing connection to legalized sports betting. 1440Wataru 'Wat' Misaka was the NBA's first player of colorJapanese-American Wataru "Wat" Misaka was a star basketball player for the University of Utah, claiming championships in 1944 and 1947 after serving during World War II. After stellar performances at Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks drafted him. NPRDavid Stern had a hand in starting the WNBAFor years, NBA Commissioner David Stern had been planning for an NBA-supported women’s basketball league. When the US Women’s Basketball Team captured gold at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, he began putting them into motion. ESPNA new logo helped the NBA stay relevant in the '70sIn 1967, the American Basketball Association was formed, featuring a flashier style of offense. The competition caused player salaries to rise in both leagues. After watching Major League Baseball unveil its new logo, the NBA decided to use the same designer to create an iconic logo for the league. It debuted in 1971 and reignited basketball fans' interest. Creative BloqSome say baseball's drug problem goes back to the late 1800sAt age 32, pitcher James “Pud” Galvin was feeling tired and decided to take "the Brown-Séquard elixir," which contained a testicular fluid from dogs and guinea pigs, believed to invigorate tired bodies. It might've worked: Galvin pitched a two-hit shutout the next day. USA TodayThe Maya played a ballgame that symbolized the conflict between good and evilPlayed on I-shaped courts across Mesoamerica, the Maya ballgame was a ritualized sport tied to cosmic struggle. Contrary to popular belief, the game did not involve mass sacrifice or basketball-style scoring. Live Science
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