Portal:Basketball

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Basketball is a competitive sport invented as a men's game in 1891 by James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, but now played on every inhabited continent and by women, most often contested by two teams, each comprising five participating players, for whom substitutions may be made. A team attempts to advance a sphrerical ball through a cast-iron basket with attached net and backboard, elevated such that the basket rim is–in most professional leagues–ten feet (3.048 meters) from the surface of the rectanguar basketball court, for indoor games usually made of hardwood and for outdoor games usually made of asphalt, on which the sport is played.

Offensively, a player advances the ball either by bouncing it himself whilst stationary or moving (dribbling) or by throwing it (passing) it to a teammate, such that a player, within the time permitted by a shot clock, eventually propels (shoots) the ball toward the basket; should the ball pass through the basket, one (free throw), two (field goal), or three (three-point field goal) points, depending on the distance from which the shot is taken, are awarded; the player, in most cases, to have tendered the ball to the scoring player is credited with an assist. Several strategies are employed by a team toward the end of generating uncontested shots for players, who most often begin a given play play in distinct areas—the center and power forward proximate to the basket (top of the key); the small forward and shooting guard proximate to the three-point arc; and the point guard passim. The team to have scored more points upon the expiration of the time alloted for the game, usually between 40 and 60 minutes and divided into four equal quarters or two equal halves, is the winner, and ties are most often settled during overtime periods.

A defense attempts to prevent an offensive team from scoring and to garner the ball for itself, employing various strategies to force an opposing player to surrender (turnover) the basketball, by dispossessing (steal) a player or successfully contesting his shot (block) or, upon an opponent's making an unsuccessful shot, overcoming an opponent to win the loose ball (rebound).

Certain disruptive contact, especially that by which an advantage is gained, is penalized (as a personal foul), as is unsportsmanlike conduct (as a technical foul), with disqualification often imposed on players who accumulate a pre-arranged number of fouls in one game. Certain means of ballhandling, such as one's running with the ball whilst not dribbling (travelling) or one's catching the ball between dribbles (double dribbling) are proscribed and, when committed by a given team, result in the awarding of possession to the opposing team.

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A three-point field goal (colloquially, three-pointer or three) is a field goal—almost always scored off a jump shot—taken from behind a semi-ellipsoid arc radiating from the basket, often equidistant therefrom at a given distance, the making of which earns a team three points, one more than does a traditional field goal and two more than does a free throw.

The three-point rule was first employed in the United States in 1945 for a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) game between Columbia and Fordham Universities, but, as regards permanent usage, was first adopted by several professional leagues. The American Basketball League, having, by Abe Saperstein upon his being denied ownership of the Minneapolis Lakers franchise, been founded in 1961 as an alternative to the National Basketball Association (NBA), and desiring publicity, adopted, at the urging of Saperstein and after consultation with Paul Cohen, who brought his Washington Tapers (National Alliance of Basketball Leagues) and George Steinbrenner, who brought his Cleveland Pipers (Amateur Athletic Union), a three-point rule, but the league collapsed in 1963, midway through its second season.

A more prominent league, the Eastern Professional Basketball League, introduced the three-point shot in 1963—the league, subsequently operated as the Eastern Basketball Association and the Continental Basketball Association, is the longest consecutive user of the three-point rule—and the rule became widely known in 1968, when the American Basketball Association (ABA), in an effort to differentiate itself from the NBA, introduced, concomitant to rules extending the shot clock to 30 seconds, permitting the slam dunk, and requiring a tricolor ball, a three-point field goal rule, which was formally adopted by the NBA before its 1978-79 season, subsequent to its merger with the ABA; the international sports authority, Fédération Internationale de Basketball, three-point line pictured, followed suit six years thence and the NCAA, having employed the rule in several conferences since 1980, one year later.

Various considerations—including of league rules with respect to man-to-man and zone defenses and of league desires for offensive performance, especially in the context of comebacks and buzzer beaters—have led governing bodies to adopt different distances away from the basket at which to place the three-point arc, almost always between 19.75 feet (6.02 metres) and 23.75 feet (7.24 meters), and different regulations as to whether the distance from the basket is uniform or diminishes proximate to the baselines, but leagues categorically require that a shooter's feet remain behind the three-point line until the time he jumps and begins his shot and do not touch inside the line prior to his releasing the ball, lest the shot, if good, should be worth just two points.

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The Kohl Center is the indoor arena on the hardwood basketball court of which the men's and women's basketball teams of the University of Wisconsin -Madison Badgers contest games against other National Collegiate Athletic Association teams, most often those of Division I.

Named for United States Senator Herbert Kohl (pictured at left), who donated $25 million USD toward the construction of the arena, which replaced the University of Wisconsin Field House in 1998, the Kohl Center seats 17,142 spectators, more than the home court of any Big Ten Conference school save the Value City Arena of the Ohio State University Buckeyes and Assembly Hall of the Indiana University Bloomington Hoosiers, such that, having sold out each of its 16 regular season games, the Badgers team ranked seventh amongst all college basketball teams in total attendance.

Concomitant to the arena is the Nicholas-Johnson Pavilion, named for two-time men's team most valuable player and 1952 Look second-team All-America shooting guard Albert Nicholas and his wife Nancy Johnson Nicholas, who donated $10 million USD to the construction project, which comprises three practice courts and four extra locker rooms, each with an attached meeting room and classroom, to be used during multi-team tournaments.

The men's and women's teams have enjoyed much home success in the Center, and the men's team compiled a 38-game winning streak at the arena between 2002 and 2005, conceding no intra-conference losses under head coach Bo Ryan while winning the 2002 and 2003 regular season conference championships, before losing to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Fighting Illini, then ranked first in the nation by the Associated Press and the National Association of Basketball Coaches and later the loser of the championship game of the 2005 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, and which the men's team had defeated to win the conference tournament championship in the 2004 Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament.

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Dejan Bodiroga (Serbian: Дејан Бодирога; born March 2, 1973) is an ethnic Serb and erstwhile Yugoslav basketball shooting guard, best known for having had success at both the professional club and international levels, having, with Olimpia Milano, won one Lega Basketball Serie A championship and one Copa Italia title; with Real Madrid-Teka, won a Saporta Cup title; with Panathinaikos, won three A1 Ethniki league championships and two Euroleague championships; with Winterthur FC Barcelona, won two Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto league championships, one Copa del Rey de Baloncesto title, and one Euroleague championship; and, with the Yugoslav and Serbia and Montenegrin national teams, three gold and one bronze Eurobasket medals, one Summer Olympics silver medal, and two Fédération Internationale de Basketball World Championship gold medals, in view of which and of his humanitarian work, he won the 2002 Sportsman of the Year Award from the Yugoslav Olympic Committee.

Born in Zrenjanin in the Serbian province of Vojvodina, Bodiroga began playing organized basketball aged 13 years and soon thereafter enrolled in the Masinac Zrenjanin basketball academy, rising to the club's first team level two years thence, where, aged 17 years, he was noticed by Croat center Krešimir Ćosić, a four-time member of the Yugoslav Olympic basketball team, who persuaded Bodiroga's family to allow the player to move to the Dalmatian city of Zadar, where he would play for the KK Zadar club; the move was an unusual one, inasmuch as most top young Yugoslav players ultimately joined either KK Crvena zvezda or KK Partizan, each a Belgrade-based member of the YUBA Liga.

During the Yugoslav wars that led to the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Bodiroga sought to leave Croatia but declined offers to play in the A1 Ethniki for Panathinaikos, of which Ćosić was then head coach, or Olympiacos CFP, as each contract offer was contingent on Bodiroga's accepting naturalized Greek citizenship. Instead, Bodiroga moved to Trieste, Italy, to play for the nascent Pallacanestro Trieste, then sponsored by apparel-fabricator Stefanel. In 1992, in his first season with Trieste, Bodiroga led his team to the Lega Basketball Serie A playoffs, averaging 21.3 points per game; the team fell in the first round but advanced further in 1993, defeating Fortitudo Bologna before losing a semifinal tie against Victoria Libertas Pesaro, the Copa Italia defending champion. The same year, behind Bodiroga, Trieste advanced to the finals of the Korać Cup tournament, losing to PAOK Basketball Club.

After Bodiroga's second season with Trieste, Stefanel withdrew its sponsorship for the team and instead undertook to back Olimipa Milano, to which each of the team's five most frequent starters and most reserves transferred for the 1994-95 season. Milano reached the Korać Cup final, losing the Cup title to ALBA Berlin, and reached the semifinals of the Lega Basketball playoffs, narrowly losing a best-of-five-game playoff to Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna, who were paced by Serbian Predrag Danilović, a 1992 National Basketball Association draftee and the 1995 European Basketballer of the Year, with whom Bodiroga's rivalry during the series garnered international attention.

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Quotes

They said playing basketball would kill me. Well, not playing basketball was killing me. — Los Angeles Lakers point guard and power forward Magic Johnson, on his returning to the National Basketball Association in 1995 after having retired in 1991 upon his learning of his HIV-seropositivity
Just remember, their fans think their players are supermen. We'll we're the kryptonite, and we're going to win. — George Mason University head coach Jim Larranaga, addressing the Patriots team prior to their regional final game against the top-seeded University of Connecticut Huskies in the 2006 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Basketball Championship
The first time I shot the hook, I was in fourth grade, and I was about five feet, eight inches tall. I put the ball up and felt totally at ease with the shot. I was completely confident it would go in and I've been shooting it ever since. — Milwaukee Bucks center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, on the sky hook move for which he became well known
I can see Sue and I leading this team to many more championships...We're going to take this and learn from it. We worked too hard for this. — Seattle Storm power forward Lauren Jackson, about teammate point guard Sue Bird on the occasion of the Storm's 2004 Women's National Basketball Association championship
I said it before we arrived in Athens, that we wanted to prove to the world that our bronze medal in Sweden was not a fluke, and we have achieved this. — Point guard Gianluca Basile, on Italy's winning the silver medal in the men's event at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, held in 2004 in Athens, Greece, in view of the team's having finished third in the 2003 European Basketball Championships

If we played Boston four-on-four, without Russell, we probably would have won every series. Th[at] guy killed us. He's the one who prevented us from achieving true greatness. — Minneapolis and Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Rod Hundley, pictured, on center Bill Russell, behind whom the Boston Celtics won eleven National Basketball Association championships, including those of 1959, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, and 1969 over the Lakers
There are really only two plays: Romeo and Juliet, and put the darn ball in the basket. — Oklahoma City University head coach Abe Lemons, on his disfavoring of complex offensive schemes as against improvisational play
Basketball can serve as a kind of metaphor for ultimate cooperation. It is a sport where success, as symbolized by the championship, requires that the dictates of community prevail over selfish impulses. — New York Knicks small forward Bill Bradley, on the nature of basketball as a team sport

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WikiProjects

Sports WikiProject
Basketball WikiProject — Olympics WikiProject
National Basketball Association WikiProject — National Basketball League WikiProject — College basketball WikiProject

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News

Play for the 2006-2007 regular season of the American Basketball Association, which is to comprise 49 teams situated across the United States, Canada, and Mexico and divided amongst three conferences and six divisions, begins; the season is the sixth in the league's twenty-first century iteration and the first for which John Salley, for eleven seasons a National Basketball Association power forward and center, serves as league commissioner. Twenty-six expansion sides—the Anderson Champions, Arkansas Aeros, Arkansas Rivercatz, Big Valley Shockwave, Brooklyn Wonders, Centinelas de Mexicali (styled in English as the Mexicali Sentinels), Chicago Rockstars, The Hollywood Fame, Hammond Rollers, Houston Undertakers, King County Royals, Jacksonville JAM, Las Vegas Venom, Miami Tropics, Orlando Aces (styled briefly as the Orlando Orange Men), Peoria Kings, Quad City Riverhawks, Quebec City Kebekwa, Richmond Ballerz, San Diego Wildcats, Southern Alabama Bounce, St. Louis Stunners, Tennessee Mud Frogs (calendared originally to begin competition in the 2007-2008 season), Twin City Ballers, Veneno de Monterrey (styled in English as the Monterrey Poison), Wilmington Sea Dawgs, and Waco Wranglers—commence league play and six franchises—the Cape Cod Frenzy (formerly the Boston Frenzy), Detroit Panthers (during the 2004-2005 season the Motown Jammers and the 2005-2006 season the Detroit Wheels), Maywood Buzz (during the first half of the 2004-2005 season the Orange County Crush, during the second half of the 2004-2005 season and the 2005-2006 season the Orange County Buzz, and briefly thereafter the Carson Buzz), Mississippi Miracles (formerly the Mississippi Stingers), Tampa Bay Strong Dogs (briefly formerly the Harlem Revs and thereafter the Harlem Strong Dogs), and Tijuana Dragons (formerly the Tijuana Diablos)—continue league play under new names, whilst the twelve teams —Los Angeles Aftershock (styled in the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 seasons as the Los Angeles Stars), which leave to begin play in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA); Pittsburgh Xplosion, which leave to begin play in the CBA; San Jose SkyRockets, in the 2005-2006 league playoffs the third-seeded side and ultimately a semifinal loser to league champion Rochester Razorsharks, which leave to begin play in the CBA as the Minot SkyRockets; SoCal Legends, in the 2005-2006 league playoffs the fourth-seeded side and ultimately the Great Eight Tournament runner-up, which leave to begin play in the CBA in 2007; the the Orange County Gladiators, Ohio Aviators, and Birmingham Magicians, which suspend operations but announce the intention to contest the 2007 season; and the Bellevue Blackhawks, Indiana Legends, Inglewood Cobras, Lake Erie Rockers, and Tacoma Navigators, which are defunct—to have partaken of the body of the 2005-2006 season do not begin league play.
The 61st season of the National Basketball Association, the first in league history in which the All-Star Game is to be contested in a city in which a constituent side does not play (in Las Vegas, Nevada, at Thomas & Mack Center) and in the playoffs of which to a pool of regular season division champions the non-champion with the best winning percentage is to be added prior to the arranging of the top four teams in either conference by seed, begins as a game played at AmericanAirlines Arena betwixt the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat, the latter the 2005-2006 Southeast Division champion and, after a playoff quarterfinal victory over the former, ultimately the 2006 league titlist, becomes the first official tie in which the basketball featured–a Spalding synthetic microfiber dual-panel ball–is not fashioned of leather.
Arnold Red Auerbach, betwixt the 1946-47 and 1965-66 seasons a head coach in the National Basketball Association and betwixt those of 1966-67 and 1996-97 a general manager and team executive—with the Boston Celtics franchise, most prominently, in the former capacity nine times a league champion and the 1963-64 Coach of the Year and in the latter capacity the 1979-80 Executive of the Year—a 1969 inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and a 1996 honoree as amongst the league's ten best-ever coaches, dies in Washington, D.C., United States, aged 89 years.
The 2006-2007 regular season of the Euroleague, the premier European club league, begins. Seven teams to have contested the league's 2005-2006 season—Strasbourg IG (Strasbourg, France), in 2005 the champion of the Ligue Nationale de Basketball (LNB); GHP Bamberg (Bamberg, Germany), in 2005 the champions of the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) and the first German side to qualify for Euroleague play; AEK Athens BC (Athens, Greece), a 2004-2005 top 16 group qualifier; Olimpia Milano (Milan, Italy), thrice a Euroleague champion; Mens Sana Basket (Siena, Italy), in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 a Final Four finisher and the 2004 Serie A champion; BC Lietuvos Rytas (Vilnius, Lithuania), the 2006 Baltic Basketball League and Lietuvos Krepšinio Lyga regular season and playoff champion and 2005 ULEB Cup titlist; and Joventut Badalona (Badalona, Spain)—do not qualify to contest the 2006-2007 season and are replaced by seven sides—Le Mans Sarthe Basket (Le Mans, France), the 2006 LNB titlist; RheinEnergie Köln (Cologne, Germany), the 2006 BBL victor; Aris TT Bank (Thessaloniki, Greece); Eldo Napoli (Naples, Italy); Lottomatica Virtus Roma (Rome, Italy); Dynamo Moscow (Moscow, Russia), the 2006 ULEB Cup champion; and Real Madrid-Teka (Madrid, Spain), on eight occasions the Euroleague champion and six times the Euroleague runner-up—who advance to the ultimate league in view of national league and ULEB Cup play; the league, as in 2005-2006, comprises twenty-four squads situated across thirteen nations. Play for the 2006-2007 iteration of the ULEB Cup, in which twenty-four squads, including 2004 champion Hapoel Jerusalem (Jerusalem, Israel) and 2005 champion BC Lietuvos Rytas, situated across fifteen countries participate, also begins.
The NBA Europe Live Tour, a seven-day series of exhibition games and skills expositions sponsored jointly by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Euroleague concomitant to the conducting of parts of NBA training camps and contested across five European nations amongst ten sides, concludes. In Barcelona, Spain, the Philadelphia 76ers lose, 104-99 to Winterthur FCB, in one of four standalone games, whilst the Los Angeles Clippers, having defeated BC Khimki, 98-91, fall to PBC CSKA Moscow, 94-75, in the decisive game of a single round-robin tournament played in Moscow, Russia; the two become, respectively, just the third and fourth NBA teams to have lost to non-North American clubs since 1988. In Cologne, Germany, thereafter, the 76ers, having overcome the Phoenix Suns, 103-100, in a semifinal match, defeat, 85-71, CSKA Moscow, victor of a semifinal, as of the 2006 Euroleague final, over Maccabi Tel Aviv–the 2004 and 2005 Euroleague titlist–90-81, to claim the four-team tournament; the Suns overcome Tel Aviv, 119-102, in a third-place game to become, in view of the team's having five days thither displaced Pallacanestro Virtus Roma in Rome, Italy, 100-93, beside the San Antonio Spurs, who garner two standalone victories—in Lyon, France, over ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne, 115-90; and in Paris, over Tel Aviv, 97-84—the second NBA side to post a win over each of two Euroleague clubs whilst on the Tour.
The 2006 Fédération Internationale de Basketball World Championship for Women, contested amongst sixteen sides, concludes in São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, as Australia, ranked as the world's third-best squad, behind power forward Lauren Jackson, who across the tournament averages 21.3 points and 9.0 rebounds per game, complete the tournament without having lost a game, having in group play, defeated Canada and Senegal and having been awarded a forfeit win in view of the failure of ultimate Group B runner-up Lithuania to reach Ginásio Ibirapuera by the time scheduled for the team's preliminary round tie, before earning eighth-final round victories over Spain, Brazil, and Argentina and advancing to the knockout stage, in which the Opals overcome France, Brazil, the world's second-ranked squad, and, in the final, Russia, the 2002 world silver medallist and the reigning Games of the Olympiad bronze medallist who field center Maria Stepanova, who finishes the tournament fourth amongst all players in rebounds per game and first in blocks per game, 91-74, to claim the team's first major international title and to earn the world's second ranking. The United States, four times the Games of the Olympiad champion, seven times the world champion, and the world's top-ranked team, lose a semifinal to Russia, but defeat Brazil, the world's fourth-ranked side, 99-59, to earn the bronze medal. In the classification round, the Czech Republic—over Russia the 2005 Eurobasket victor, one of four FIBA Europe teams to reach the quarterfinal, the Group D winner, and, in Barueri the Group F second place finisher to the United States ahead of Russia—having lost in to France in overtime, 79-78, defeat, behind guard Hana Machová, the tournament's leading assist-maker, Spain, which defeat Brazil in preliminary play and for whom guard Amaya Valdemoro finishes the tournament second amongst all players in points per game, to earn the seventh placing, whilst the French team win the fifth place game over Lithuania. Argentina, which finish Group A play in equal first with Brazil, fail to advance from Group E and ultimately finish in ninth place ahead of Canada.