1.
Basketball
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Basketball is a non-contact team sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of five players each. The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches in diameter and 10 feet high that is mounted to a backboard at each end of the court. The game was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith, a team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the basket being defended by the opposition team during regular play. A field goal scores three points for the team if the player shoots from behind the three-point line. A team can also score via free throws, which are worth one point, the team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but additional time is mandated when the score is tied at the end of regulation. The ball can be advanced on the court by passing it to a teammate and it is a violation to lift, or drag, ones pivot foot without dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands then resume dribbling. The game has many techniques for displaying skill—ball-handling, shooting, passing, dribbling, dunking, shot-blocking. The point guard directs the on court action of the team, implementing the coachs game plan, Basketball is one of the worlds most popular and widely viewed sports. Outside North America, the top clubs from national leagues qualify to continental championships such as the Euroleague, the FIBA Basketball World Cup attracts the top national teams from around the world. Each continent hosts regional competitions for teams, like EuroBasket. The FIBA Womens Basketball World Cup features the top womens basketball teams from continental championships. The main North American league is the WNBA, whereas the EuroLeague Women has been dominated by teams from the Russian Womens Basketball Premier League, in early December 1891, Canadian Dr. He sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied, after rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot elevated track. Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball and these laces could cause bounce passes and dribbling to be unpredictable. Eventually a lace-free ball construction method was invented, and this change to the game was endorsed by Naismith, dribbling was not part of the original game except for the bounce pass to teammates. Passing the ball was the means of ball movement. Dribbling was eventually introduced but limited by the shape of early balls. Dribbling only became a part of the game around the 1950s
2.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is an American retired professional basketball player who played 20 seasons in the National Basketball Association for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers. During his career as a center, Abdul-Jabbar was a record six-time NBA Most Valuable Player, a record 19-time NBA All-Star, a 15-time All-NBA selection, and an 11-time NBA All-Defensive Team member. A member of six NBA championship teams as a player and two as an assistant coach, Abdul-Jabbar twice was voted NBA Finals MVP, in 1996, he was honored as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. NBA coach Pat Riley and players Isiah Thomas and Julius Erving have called him the greatest basketball player of all time, drafted by the one-season-old Bucks franchise in the 1969 NBA draft with the first overall pick, Alcindor spent six seasons in Milwaukee. After winning his first NBA championship in 1971, he adopted the Muslim name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at age 24, using his trademark skyhook shot, he established himself as one of the leagues top scorers. In 1975, he was traded to the Lakers, with whom he played the last 14 seasons of his career, Abdul-Jabbars contributions were a key component in the Showtime era of Lakers basketball. Over his 20-year NBA career his team succeeded in making the playoffs 18 times and past the 1st round in 14 of them and he remains the all-time leading scorer in the NBA, and is ranked 3rd all-time in both rebounds and blocks. In 2007, ESPN voted him the greatest center of all time, in 2008, they named him the greatest player in basketball history. Abdul-Jabbar has also been an actor, a coach. In 2012, he was selected by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be a U. S. global cultural ambassador, in 2016, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. was born in New York City, the child of Cora Lillian, a department store price checker. At birth, he weighed 12 pounds 11 ounces and was 22 1⁄2 inches long and he was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Power Memorial Academy, a Catholic high school in Manhattan. From an early age, Lew Alcindor began his record-breaking basketball accomplishments and this earned him a nickname—The tower from Power. His 2,067 total points were a New York City high school record, the team won the national high school boys basketball championship when Alcindor was in 11th grade, and was runner-up his senior year. Alcindor played on the UCLA freshman team only because the rule was in effect. In his first college game, Lew set a UCLA single game record with 56 points, in 1967 and 1968, he also won USBWA College Player of the Year which later became the Oscar Robertson Trophy. Alcindor became the player to win the Helms Foundation Player of the Year award three times. The 1965–66 UCLA Bruin team was the preseason #1, but on November 27,1965, the freshman team led by Alcindor defeated the varsity team 75–60 in the first game in the new Pauley Pavilion
3.
Wilt Chamberlain
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Wilton Norman Wilt Chamberlain was an American basketball player. The 7 foot 1 inch Chamberlain weighed 250 pounds as a rookie before bulking up to 275 and he played the center position and is widely considered one of the greatest and most dominant players in NBA history. Chamberlain holds numerous NBA records in scoring, rebounding, and durability categories and he is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season. He also won seven scoring, eleven rebounding, nine field goal percentage titles, Chamberlain is the only player in NBA history to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a season, a feat he accomplished seven times. He is also the player to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game over the entire course of his NBA career. Chamberlain was known by various nicknames during his playing career. He hated the ones that called attention to his height such as Goliath and Wilt the Stilt and he preferred The Big Dipper, which was inspired by his friends who saw him dip his head as he walked through doorways. Chamberlain was also a businessman, authored several books. He was a bachelor, and became notorious for his claim to have had sexual intercourse with as many as 20,000 women. He was a child, nearly dying of pneumonia in his early years. In his early years Chamberlain was not interested in basketball, because he thought it was a game for sissies, but according to Chamberlain, basketball was king in Philadelphia, so he eventually turned to the sport. According to ESPN journalist Hal Bock, Chamberlain was scary, flat-out frightening, before he came along, most basketball players were mortal-sized men. It was also in this period of his life when his three lifelong nicknames Wilt the Stilt, Goliath, and his favorite, The Big Dipper, were allegedly born. He scored 34 points, won Overbrook the Public League title, in that game, West Catholic quadruple-teamed Chamberlain the entire game, and despite the centers 29 points, the Panthers lost 54-42. In his second Overbrook season, Chamberlain continued his scoring, among them scoring a high school record 71 points against Roxborough. The Panthers comfortably won the Public League title after again beating Northeast in which Chamberlain scored 40 points, Chamberlain scored 32 points and led Overbrook to a flawless 19–0 season. During summer vacations Chamberlain worked as a bellhop in Kutshers Hotel, subsequently, owners Milton and Helen Kutsher kept up a lifelong friendship with Wilt, and according to their son Mark, They were his second set of parents. In Chamberlains third and final Overbrook season, he continued his high scoring, the Panthers won the Public League a third time, beating West Philadelphia 78-60, and in the city championship game, they met West Catholic once again
4.
Michael Jordan
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Michael Jeffrey Jordan, also known by his initials, MJ, is an American retired professional basketball player, businessman, and principal owner and chairman of the Charlotte Hornets. Jordan played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association for the Chicago Bulls and his biography on the NBA website states, By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was considered instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s, Jordan played three seasons for coach Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina. As a freshman, he was a member of the Tar Heels national championship team in 1982, Jordan joined the Bulls in 1984 as the third overall draft pick. He quickly emerged as a star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, demonstrated by performing slam dunks from the throw line in slam dunk contests, earned him the nicknames Air Jordan. He also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball, in 1991, he won his first NBA championship with the Bulls, and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a three-peat. Jordan retired for a time in January 1999, but returned for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Wizards. Among his numerous accomplishments, Jordan holds the NBA records for highest career regular season scoring average and highest career playoff scoring average. In 1999, he was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN and he became a member of the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2015. Jordan is also known for his product endorsements and he fueled the success of Nikes Air Jordan sneakers, which were introduced in 1985 and remain popular today. Jordan also starred in the 1996 feature film Space Jam as himself, in 2006, he became part-owner and head of basketball operations for the then-Charlotte Bobcats, buying a controlling interest in 2010. In 2015, Jordan became the first billionaire NBA player in history as a result of the increase in value of NBA franchises and he is the third richest African American, behind Oprah Winfrey and Robert F. Smith. Jordan was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Deloris, who worked in banking and his family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, when he was a toddler. Jordan is the fourth of five children and he has two older brothers, Larry Jordan and James R. Jordan, Jr. one older sister, Deloris, and a younger sister, Roslyn. Jordans brother James retired in 2006 as the Command Sergeant Major of the 35th Signal Brigade of the XVIII Airborne Corps in the U. S. Army. Jordan attended Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, where he highlighted his athletic career by playing basketball, baseball and he tried out for the varsity basketball team during his sophomore year, but at 511, he was deemed too short to play at that level. His taller friend, Harvest Leroy Smith, was the only sophomore to make the team, motivated to prove his worth, Jordan became the star of Laneys junior varsity squad, and tallied several 40-point games
5.
Shaquille O'Neal
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Shaquille Rashaun Shaq ONeal, nicknamed Shaq, is a retired American professional basketball player and former rapper who is currently an analyst on the television program Inside the NBA. Listed at 7 ft 1 in tall and weighing 325 pounds, ONeal played for six teams throughout his 19-year NBA career. Following his career at Louisiana State University, ONeal was drafted by the Orlando Magic with the first overall pick in the 1992 NBA draft. He quickly became one of the best centers in the league, winning Rookie of the Year in 1992–93, after four years with the Magic, ONeal signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Lakers. They won three championships in 2000,2001, and 2002. Amid tension between ONeal and Kobe Bryant, ONeal was traded to the Miami Heat in 2004, midway through the 2007–2008 season he was traded to the Phoenix Suns. After a season-and-a-half with the Suns, ONeal was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2009–10 season, ONeal played for the Boston Celtics in the 2010–11 season before retiring. He is one of three players to win NBA MVP, All-Star game MVP and Finals MVP awards in the same year. He ranks 7th all-time in points scored, 5th in field goals, 13th in rebounds, largely due to his ability to dunk the basketball, ONeal also ranks 3rd all-time in field goal percentage. ONeal was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016, in addition to his basketball career, ONeal has released four rap albums, with his first, Shaq Diesel, going platinum. He has appeared in films and has starred in his own reality shows, Shaqs Big Challenge. He currently hosts The Big Podcast with Shaq, ONeal was born on March 6,1972 in Newark, New Jersey, to Lucille ONeal and Joe Toney, an All-State guard in high school who was offered a basketball scholarship to play at Seton Hall. Toney struggled with addiction and was imprisoned for drug possession when ONeal was an infant. Upon his release, he did not resume a place in ONeals life and instead agreed to relinquish his rights to ONeals stepfather, Phillip A. Harrison. ONeal remained estranged from his father for decades, ONeal had not spoken with Toney or expressed an interest in establishing a relationship. On his 1994 rap album, Shaq Fu, The Return, ONeal voiced his feelings of disdain for Toney in the song Biological Didnt Bother, dismissing him with the line Phil is my father. However, ONeals feelings toward Toney mellowed in the years following Harrisons death in 2013, ONeal credits the Boys and Girls Club of America in Newark with giving him a safe place to play and keeping him off the streets. It gave me something to do, he said, id just go there to shoot
6.
Steve Nash
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Stephen John Steve Nash, OC, OBC, is a Canadian retired professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association. He was an eight-time NBA All-Star and a seven-time All-NBA selection, twice, Nash was named the NBA Most Valuable Player while playing for the Phoenix Suns. He currently serves as manager of the Canadian national team. After a successful high school career in British Columbia, Nash earned a scholarship to Santa Clara University in California. In his four seasons with the Broncos, the team made three NCAA Tournament appearances, and he was named the West Coast Conference Player of the Year. Nash graduated from Santa Clara as the teams leader in assists and was taken as the 15th pick in the 1996 NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns. He made minimal impact and was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in 1998, by his fourth season with the Mavericks, he was voted to his first NBA All-Star Game and had earned his first All-NBA selection. Together with Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley, Nash led the Mavericks to the Western Conference Finals the following season and he became a free agent after the 2003–04 season and returned to the Phoenix Suns. In the 2004–05 season, Nash led the Suns to the Western Conference Finals and was named the leagues MVP and he was named MVP again in the 2005–06 season and was runner-up for a third consecutive MVP to Nowitzki in 2006–07. Named by ESPN in 2006 as the ninth-greatest point guard of all time, Nash led the league in assists and he is also ranked as one of the top players in NBA league history in three-point shooting, free-throw shooting, total assists, and assists per game. Nash has been honoured for his contributions to various philanthropic causes, in 2006, he was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2007 and invested to the order in 2016, Nash has been a co-owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC of Major League Soccer since the team entered the league in 2011. In 2012, he was named manager of the Canadian mens national basketball team. Nash was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to a Welsh mother, Jean and his family moved to Regina, Saskatchewan when he was 18 months old, before settling in Victoria, British Columbia. He therefore holds British as well as Canadian citizenship, before the family settled in Canada, his father played professional soccer in various parts of the world. Nash often played soccer and ice hockey with his younger brother Martin, in grade eight, however, he told his mother that one day he would play in the NBA and would become a star. He was neighbour to future NHL stars Russ and Geoff Courtnall, there, he starred in basketball, soccer, and rugby union. While playing basketball during his season, Nash averaged 21.3 points,11.2 assists
7.
Slam dunk
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This is considered a normal field goal attempt, if successful it is worth two points. Such a shot was known as a shot until the term slam dunk was coined by former Los Angeles Lakers announcer Chick Hearn. The slam dunk is the most efficient basketball shot, thus, the maneuver is often extracted from the basketball game and showcased in slam dunk contests. Perhaps the most popular is the NBA Slam Dunk Contest held during the annual NBA All-Star Weekend, the first incarnation of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest was held during the half-time of the 1976 American Basketball Association All-Star Game. Dunking was banned in the NCAA from 1967 to 1976, many people have attributed this to the dominance of the then-college phenomenon Lew Alcindor, the no-dunking rule is sometimes referred to as the Lew Alcindor rule. The phrase slam dunk has since entered popular usage in American English, meaning a sure thing, during the 1940s and 50s, 7-foot center and Olympic Gold Medalist Bob Kurland was dunking regularly during games. Yet defenders viewed the execution of a slam dunk as an affront that deserved retribution, thus defenders often intimidated offensive players. Satch Sanders, a career Boston Celtic from 1960 to 1973, said. in the old days, still, by the late 1950s and early 60s players such as Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain had incorporated the move into their offensive arsenal. The dunk became a fan-favorite, as players began to aggressively intimidate defenders with the threat of vicious slams. Through the 1970s, the dunk was standard fare, David Thompson, Julius Erving, Darryl Dawkins. Dunk types reflect the various motions performed on the way to the basket and they start with the basic one- or two-hand forward-facing dunk and go on through various levels of athleticism and intricacy. At the onset of the jump, the ball is controlled by one or both hands and once in the air is typically brought to chest level. The player will then quickly thrust the ball downwards and fully extend their arms, finally the ball is brought above the head and dunked with one or both hands, and the double pump appears as one fluid motion. As a demonstration of athletic prowess, the ball may be held in the below-the-waist position for milliseconds longer, whether the result of a 180° spin or body angle at takeoff, the double pump is generally performed with the players back toward the rim. While this orientation is rather conducive to the double pump motion, additionally, Kenny Sky Walker, Tracy McGrady—in the 1989 and 2000 NBA Contests, respectively—and others, have performed 360° variation of the double pump. Circa 2007, independent slam dunker T-Dub performed the double pump with a 540° spin which he concluded by hanging on the rim, due to the undemanding body mechanics involved in execution, the tomahawk is employed by players of all sizes and jumping abilities. Because of the ball-security provided by the use of hands, the tomahawk is a staple of game situations—frequently employed in alley-oops and in offense-rebound put-back dunks. Additionally, the finish can exert tremendous force on the basket—Darryl Dawkins twice shattered NBA backboards with tomahawk dunks
8.
Foul (basketball)
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In basketball, a foul is an infraction of the rules more serious than a violation. Most fouls occur as a result of personal contact with an opponent and/or unsportsmanlike behavior. Fouls can result in one or more of the following penalties, the fouled player is awarded one or more free throws. The player committing the foul fouls out of the game, the player committing the foul is suspended from some number of subsequent games. Some of the penalties listed above are assessed only if a player or a team commits a number of fouls above a specified limit, ordinary fouls are routine because of the constant motion inherent in the sport and are not viewed as bad sportsmanship. The penalty imposes a cost on violating the rules but does not disparage the player committing the foul, a player intending never to commit a foul might play so cautiously as to be ineffective. More serious fouls are regarded as bad sportsmanship, and the penalties are designed to be disciplinary, there are several classes of foul, each enumerated below and covered in greater detail in its own article. A personal foul is the most common type of foul and it results from personal contact between two opposing players. Basketball features constant motion, and contact between opposing players is unavoidable, but significant contact that is the fault of illegal conduct by one opponent is a foul against that player, most personal fouls are called against a defensive player. A personal foul that is committed by a player of the team in possession of the ball is called an offensive foul, when neither team is in clear possession of the ball, a foul is called a loose-ball foul. A flagrant foul is violent player contact that the official believes is not an attempt to directly play the ball within the rules. FIBA calls excessive or unjustified contact between opponents an unsportsmanlike foul, the NBA and NCAA define a Flagrant-1 foul as unnecessary contact, and two such penalties leads to ejection of the player. A Flagrant-2 foul is contact that is unnecessary and excessive, and requires ejection. A technical foul is a foul unrelated to physical contact during game play, the foul may be called on a player in the game, another player, a coach, or against the team in general. This class of foul applies to all of the following, Unsportsmanlike conduct outside the scope of the game, such as taunting, profanity, or conduct toward an official. A personal foul committed by a player who has fouled out of the game but is readmitted to the game because of the lack of substitutes, illegal gamesmanship, such as delay of game. A variety of situations, such as arranging the players in an illegal defense. In the last two cases, the rules may call for the referee to give a rather than assess a technical foul on the first infraction
9.
Double (basketball)
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In basketball, a double is the accumulation of a double-digit number total in one of five statistical categories—points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots—in a game. Multiple players usually score double-digit points in any basketball game. A double-double is the accumulation of a double-digit number total in two of the five categories in a game. The most common combination is points-rebounds, followed by points-assists. Since the 1983–84 season, Tim Duncan leads the National Basketball Association in the combination with 840. A triple-double is the accumulation of a double-digit number total in three of the five categories in a game, the most common way to achieve a triple-double is through points, rebounds, and assists. Oscar Robertson leads the all-time NBA list with 181 career triple-doubles and is the player ever to average a triple-double for a season. Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson currently share the record for most triple-doubles in a season at 41. A quadruple-double is the accumulation of a double-digit number total in four of the five categories in a game and this has occurred four times in the NBA. A quintuple-double is the accumulation of a double-digit number total in all five categories in a game, two quintuple-doubles have been recorded at the high school level, by Tamika Catchings and Aimee Oertner, but none have occurred in a college or professional game. A similar accomplishment is the five-by-five, which is the accumulation of at least five points, five rebounds, five assists, five steals, in the NBA, only Hakeem Olajuwon and Andrei Kirilenko have accumulated multiple five-by-fives since the 1984–85 season. The most common combination is points and rebounds, followed by points and assists. Double-doubles are fairly common in the NBA, during the 2008–09 season,69 players who were eligible for leadership in the main statistical categories recorded at least 10 double-doubles during the season. One such double-double is called double double-double and it occurs when a player accumulates 20 or more in two different statistical categories in a game. Another such double-double is called a triple double-double, the only player in NBA history to record a 40-40 is Wilt Chamberlain, who achieved the feat eight times in his career. Of the five instances, four were recorded in his season. Wilt Chamberlain also holds the record for most career double-doubles with 1111, Tim Duncan is second with 1005, followed by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 1004. Chamberlain also holds the second and third longest continuous streaks of double-doubles with 220 and 133 and this record is before the ABA–NBA merger in 1976
10.
National Collegiate Athletic Association
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The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a non-profit association which regulates athletes of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations, and individuals. It also organizes the programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. The organization is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2014, the NCAA generated almost a billion dollars in revenue. 80 to 90% of this revenue was due to the Division I Mens Basketball Tournament and this revenue is then distributed back into various organizations and institutions across the United States. In August 1973, the current three-division setup of Division I, Division II, under NCAA rules, Division I and Division II schools can offer scholarships to athletes for playing a sport. Division III schools may not offer any athletic scholarships, generally, larger schools compete in Division I and smaller schools in II and III. Division I football was divided into I-A and I-AA in 1978. Subsequently, the term Division I-AAA was briefly added to delineate Division I schools which do not field a football program at all, in 2006, Divisions I-A and I-AA were respectively renamed the Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision. Inter-collegiate sports began in the US in 1852 when crews from Harvard University, as other sports emerged, notably football and basketball, many of these same concepts and standards were adopted. Football, in particular, began to emerge as a marquee sport, the IAAUS was officially established on March 31,1906, and took its present name, the NCAA, in 1910. For several years, the NCAA was a group and rules-making body, but in 1921, the first NCAA national championship was conducted. Gradually, more rules committees were formed and more championships were created, a series of crises brought the NCAA to a crossroads after World War II. The Sanity Code – adopted to establish guidelines for recruiting and financial aid – failed to curb abuses, postseason football games were multiplying with little control, and member schools were increasingly concerned about how the new medium of television would affect football attendance. The complexity of problems and the growth in membership and championships demonstrated the need for full-time professional leadership. Walter Byers, previously an executive assistant, was named executive director in 1951. Byers wasted no time placing his stamp on the Association, as college athletics grew, the scope of the nations athletics programs diverged, forcing the NCAA to create a structure that recognized varying levels of emphasis. In 1973, the Associations membership was divided into three legislative and competitive divisions – I, II, and III, five years later in 1978, Division I members voted to create subdivisions I-A and I-AA in football. Until the 1980s, the association did not offer womens athletics, instead, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, with nearly 1000 member schools, governed womens collegiate sports in the United States
