Today is the 126 year anniversary of basketball being invented by James Naismith.
The sport was invented December 21, 1891, and the rest is history. ESPN’s Darren Rovell tweeted out a picture of Naismith’s original basketball rules with the caption, “This Day In 1891: James Naismith invents the game of basketball. These initial rules sold at auction for $4.3 million.”
This Day In 1891: James Naismith invents the game of basketball. These initial rules sold at auction for $4.3 million. pic.twitter.com/qltxGaFAHs
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) December 21, 2017
Basketball is something millions, if not even billions, of people around the world enjoy. Personally, I played basketball for a very large portion of my life. It’s an outstanding sport that can played just about anywhere.
I was a bit of an enigma on the court for my 29-0 state championship team, which is the greatest team in Wisconsin high school basketball history. Props to us. I had the quick trigger of Russell Westbrook without an ounce of the talent, my attitude was a mix of Darko Milicic and Rasheed Wallace, my confidence was at a Michael Jordan like level and I believe I committed more fouls than scored points senior year. The best fact was though that I averaged one shot attempt for every 20 seconds I was on the floor. Like I said, I had a Russell Westbrook mentality of fire from wherever and whenever.
A college coach once showed up to a tournament to scout me, and my teammate’s dad laughed in his face. I don’t blame him. Recruiting a guy like me is what gets coaches fired.
However, I feel very confident I was more of what Naismith had in mind when he invented the game. Just a very fundamental, gritty, workhorse and locker room type guy. All these players with tons of talent and insane amounts of athleticism never would have cut it back in the days of Naismith when the game was much simpler. I, on the other hand, would have absolutely thrived.
