Basketball

Basketball is a game that requires agilitry, as well as a good technique. You also need to work as a team in order to win games. Basketball is a sport played with two teams going at it against each other. Each team consists of five players on the court with five to seven sitting on the bench as substitutes. In basketball, the main effort is to try to score more points than your opponents do. There are two baskets, one on each side of the court. If a player makes the ball fall into one of those baskets (the one that he needs to get it into), then he will earn his team two points. However there is a three point line at a specific distance away from the basket which is specified on the court itself. There are fouls which are called in basketball; they are just like penalties in hockey. They happen whenever a oppoenent hits a player for any reason. The player is either offered one or two shots at the foul line; each basket is then earned one point. Sometimes however his team will remain having pocession of the ball. A lot of players tend to slam the ball as it is the easiest way to earn two points for his team.

History of Basketball
Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith, a canadian physical education instructor. It was invented by James Naismith to try to keep his rowdy class down in the winter by orders of the physical education head in a catholic school in New England. James Naismith had 14 days to invent this new game. It was played first with a soccer ball and two peach baskets as the baskets of what we know now. But back then whenever a basket was scored upon, the game would have to stop while someone goes up that distance to retrive the ball from the peach basket. It has now grown worldwide as many countries are playing this sport. The NBA is the professional league which consists of the top players around the world. Most of them comming from the US.

Basketball is another sport played in the Olympics. This sport hasn't been played in Athens yet as it'll be played on the final 15 days which is from August 14 to 28. There will be a mens as well as a womans tournament. Below is shown who will be competing on both sides.

Mens Tournament

Group A                 Group B
1. Argentina                Angola
2. China                      Australia
3. Italy                        Greece
4. New Zealand          Lithuania
5. Serbia                     Puerto Rico
6. Spain                      USA

Womans Tournament

Group A                 Group B
1. Russia                     USA
2. Nigeria                    China
3. Japan                      Spain
4. Greece                    Czech Republic
5. Australia                  Korea
6. Brazil                       New Zealand
   
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