Basketball News and Betting Information

Basketball courts come in various sizes based on the level and league. However, in the USA, both the professional league, the NBA, and the college league, the NCAA, have courts of the same dimensions. Here they are:

1. NBA and NCAA: 94 feet long by 50 feet wide
2. FIBA: 91.9 feet long by 49.2 feet wide
3. Amateur: varies; some older high school gyms have courts that are 74 or 84 feet in length.

There are a few main components to most basketball courts: the out-of-bounds lines, the free throw lines, the three point lines, the baskets, and the spherical areas used for tip-offs.

• The Hoop: The basket is comprised of a metal hoop with a net attached to it. It is mounted on a flat vertical glass board, referred to as a backboard. Regulation height is 10 feet and the diameter of the rim of the hoop is 18 inches.
• Basketball: Professional and college basketballs are 29.5" in circumference and have a pressure of 7.5-8.5 PSI. Max weight is 22 ounces.
• Basketball Backboards: Regulation basketball backboards have a width of 72” and a height of 42” with an inner rectangle that is 24” wide and 18” tall. The rim is exactly 10 feet above the court.
• Basketball Rims & Nets: Basketball rims are orange painted metal goals attached to the backboard. Basketball rims have an inner diameter of 18”. Nets are hung from the bottom of the rim with lengths between 15”-18”. Basketball rims are mounted 10’ from the court floor.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a thirty team professional basketball team with franchises in various US cities. Worldwide, the NBA is seen as the world's basketball league with the best competition and the best players. After the regular season concludes, the playoffs begin. In June of each year, a champion is crowned.

Basketball was invented in Massachusetts by Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian-American a physical education professor at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield. He first introduced the game in 1891.

Naismith created basketball to offer an indoor sport to YMCA athletes during the cold winter months. The original version of the game used two peach baskets and a soccer ball. At the outset, the game only had thirteen rules.

Basketball was originally played with eighteen players, nine on each team. However, modern day basketball is played with five players from each team on the court.

The original basketball game, as defined by Naismith, didn't include the concept of dribbling, however there were bounce passes to teammates.

Ball movement was made by passing the ball. Eventually dribbling was introduced to the game, but the early ball used in the game wasn't conducive to dribbling with much success.

The peach baskets used in the early version of the game were eventually replaced with metal hoops and backboards in 1906.

There have been lots of factors contributing to the sport of basketball's rapid growth worldwide. New professional leagues have sprouted across many continents, and the talent pool in the sport has diversified greatly.

Expanded broadcasting and the propagation of basketball digitally due to the internet and social media, has fueled this expansion. Now basketball can be found in places all around the world, including leagues in places like China, island nations like the Philippines, the African continent, and Latin America, especially in Argentina.

FIBA has revolutionized basketball with technology and analytics, which have offered new tools for players to be monitored, tracked, guided and trained.

All of these new tools have been key to expand marketing opportunities and development of infrastructure worldwide.