IG07 Sports

Basketball is a very popular sport all around the world but particularly in the United States.

There are ten players on each basketball team but only five of the players are on the court at the same time.

The main aim of the game is to put the ball through the hoop, and then score more points than the opposing team.

The Canadian physician and educator James Naismith invented basketball in December 1891 whilst teaching at Springfield College.

He was given 14 days to create an indoor game to provide 'athletic distraction' to keep students occupied during the winter months in New England.

So, it all started with 18 men, two peach baskets affixed to a 10-foot-high railing and a soccer ball in a Young Men's Christian Association in Massachusetts.

Venetoklion Indoor Hall.

The first basketball game was played in 1891, and in 1892 Naismith published the first booklet containing the basic rules, which are almost unchanged today.

The game quickly spread nationwide and to other parts of the world. The soccer ball was then replaced with the basketball, the metal hoops and hammock style bucket were introduced in 1893 and the backboards in 1895.

In Rhodes

There are fifteen basketball clubs in the island, which play each other in their local league.

In addition to which the Local Association has organised many international basketball events including:

• Mediterranean Junior Male Championship (qualifying round), hosting Greece, Italy, France and Spain in July 2000.
• 6th European Youth Championship (qualifying round) including with the participation of Greece, Yugoslavia, Germany, Georgia, Portugal, England, in July 2001.
• The finals of the Greek High School Championship in 2002.

The Men's basketball tournaments will be held in the Ialyssos Indoor Hall and the Women's in the Diagoras Indoor Hall.