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The Design of Basketball, Part 1: The Role of New England Snow and Poor Equipment Design

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Statistics say few of you share my full-blown Linsanity, and our non-U.S. readers aren't interested in the NBA. But I thought I'd share some aspects of the invention and evolution of basketball that all designers can relate to. In broad strokes, the story of the sport involves 1) Needing to solve a problem with limited resources and within limited confines, 2) Gradually improving equipment through better manufacturing technology and ingenuity, and 3) Modifying the original idea's design when unforeseeable human behavior—hacks, basically—kicked in.

Problem and Initial Solution

Basketball was invented because of crappy weather. In 1891 a guy named James Naismith (pictured above) was working for the Phys Ed department at a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts. He needed to keep his students exercising. But it was December in New England, where freezing rain and snow make outdoor sports impractical. The following is from Naismith's own resume:

OBJECTIVE

To create an indoor game that would provide an "athletic distraction" for a rowdy class through the brutal New England winter. Under orders from Dr. Luther Gulick, head of physical education at the School for Christian Workers (now Springfield College), Naismith had 14 days to create a game for a group of 18 students who were training to become executive secretaries.

While Naismith couldn't control the weather, he did have access to an indoor gymnasium. It wasn't the right shape or size for baseball, nor was an indoor hockey rink a possibility. He didn't want the physical contact and potential injuries of football or rugby, nor the guarded goals of lacrosse or soccer and the contact those could engender.

His solution was to invent a sport where players could only advance the ball by throwing or slapping it to each other; running with the ball, kicking it or wrestling it out of someone's hands was forbidden. And there would be no goaltender; instead the "goals" would be placed high up over the players' heads to preclude contact and provide the scoring challenge.

The Physical Equipment

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The school janitor was reportedly tasked with finding two boxes to use as goals. The story goes that he came back with two peach baskets, and affixed them to the bottoms of the galleries on either side of the gymnasium, about ten feet off of the ground.

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