Basketball Coloring Pages

Basketball is a sport popular around the world. It could not be otherwise and to us coloring pages related to this sport have arrived. We will see here a variety of iconic players from around the world. We will see the NBA courts as well as the European ones. Much more in the pictures below - we encourage you to familiarize yourself with this section.

James Naismith - the man who invented basketball - a history of the game

James Naismith, a 31-year-old undergraduate student. After graduating from Presbyterian College in Montreal, he became infected with a love of athletics and went to Springfield to study physical education - a relatively new and unknown academic discipline at the time - under Luther Halsey Gulick, the College's superintendent of physical education, now known as the father of physical education and recreation in the United States.

As Naismith, a sophomore who had been appointed to the teaching staff, looked at his class, his mind wandered back to the summer session of 1891, when Gulick introduced a new course in the psychology of the game. During class discussions, Gulick stressed the need for a new indoor game, one that "would be interesting, easy to learn, and easy to play in winter and under artificial light." No one in the class took up Gulick's challenge to come up with such a game. But now, with the fall sports season coming to an end and students dreading the mandatory and boring work in the gym, Naismith had new motivation.

Already two instructors were trying unsuccessfully to come up with activities that would interest the young men. The faculty met to discuss what was becoming a persistent problem of unbridled class energy and lack of interest in required work. During this meeting, Naismith later wrote that he expressed his opinion that "the problem lies not in the people but in the system we use." He believed that the kind of work needed to motivate and inspire the young men he was dealing with "should be of a recreational nature, something that would appeal to their instinct for fun."

Naismith turned to the school janitor, hoping to find two square boxes that could be used as goals. The janitor returned with two baskets. Naismith nailed them to the lower railing of the gymnasium balcony, one at each end. The height of the lower balcony railing was ten feet. At each end of the balcony there was a man whose job it was to pull the ball out of the basket and put it back in play. It was not until several years later that the bottoms of the peach baskets were cut to allow the ball to fall freely.

Naismith then developed 13 original rules. A referee was appointed. The match was to be divided into two 15-minute halves with a five-minute rest period between them. He typed the rules and posted them on the bulletin board. A short time later, the class met and teams were chosen consisting of three centers, three forwards, and three defenders. The two centers met in the middle of the court, Naismith threw the ball, and that is how basketball was born.