Origins

• Naismith with a ball and peach basket
  
  Naismith came up with the sport as a way to help students pass the time during the long New England winters. The first goal used was a peach basket, and there were nine players on each side.
  
  

Evolution

• Senda Berenson Abbott was a pioneer for women's basketball, having supervised the first women's basketball game--played at Smith College in 1893. The sport spread in the 1910s and 1920s, first to YMCAs and colleges, as universities began adopting the game as an official sport.
  
  

Early NBA

• The first professional basketball league, the National Basketball League (NBL) was formed in the United States in 1937 and later merged with another league to create the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1946. Basketball also became an Olympic sport in 1936.
  
  

50s and 60s

• The Minneapolis Lakers dominated the NBA in the 1950s, winning five league titles. The Boston Celtics dominated the league from 1957 to 1976, winning 13 titles in that span.
  
  

A Modern Game

• Lebron James
  
  Four notable players, Julius "Dr. J" Erving in the 1970s, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the 1980s and Michael Jordan in the 1990s helped elevate the style of play of professional basketball and brought more fans to the game. The rivalry between Bird and Johnson and the athleticism of Erving and Jordan brought the NBA to new heights.
  
  

200s

• A new crop of players, led by Dwayne Wade, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, took the torch passed by Jordan and others to become superstars in the decade of the 2000s. Bryant's Lakers won the 2009 NBA Championship.