subject: Sporting Bet - Euro Basket Ball [print this page] Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or shooting a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules. Basketball is one of the most popular and widely viewed sports in the world.
Basketball has evolved many commonly used techniques of shooting, passing, and dribbling, as well as specialised player positions and offensive and defensive structures (player positioning) and techniques. Typically, the tallest members of a team will play center, small forward, or power forward positions, while shorter players or those who possess the best ball handling skills and speed play point guard or "shooting guard".
The first rules, court, and game
In early December 1891, Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian-born physical education professor and instructor at the International Young Mens Christian Association Training School (YMCA) (today, Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, was trying to keep his gym class active on a rainy day. He sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied and at proper levels of fitness during the long New England winters. After rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot (3.05 m) elevated track. In contrast with modern basketball nets, this peach basket retained its bottom, and balls had to be retrieved manually after each "basket" or point scored; this proved inefficient, however, so the bottom of the basket was removed, allowing the balls to be poked out with a long dowel each time. The peach baskets were used until 1906 when they were finally replaced by metal hoops with backboards. A further change was soon made, so the ball merely passed through, paving the way for the game we know today.
An association football was used to shoot baskets. Whenever a person got the ball in the basket, his team would gain a point. Whichever team got the most points won the game. The baskets were originally nailed to the mezzanine balcony of the playing court, but this proved impractical when spectators on the balcony began to interfere with shots. The backboard was introduced to prevent this interference; it had the additional effect of allowing rebound shots.
Naismiths handwritten diaries, discovered by his granddaughter in early 2006, indicate that he was nervous about the new game he had invented, which incorporated rules from a childrens game called "Duck on a Rock", as many had failed before it. Naismith called the new game "Basket Ball".
The first official game was played in a YMCA gymnasium on January 20, 1892 with nine players. The game ended at 1-0 the shot was made from 25 feet (7.6 m), on a court just half the size of a present-day Streetball or National Basketball Association (NBA) court. By 1897-1898 teams of five became standard.
The Euroleague is the Champions League equivalent in Euro Basketball and as well as being sponsors of the event A huge sport betting company called Sporting Bet offer in play betting on all 16 matches every week on this very competition.
The Israeli side Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv have set the Euro Basketball world alight in the current season (2010) with a scintillating display winning six of their matches and losing just one.
One big side really struggling this season (2010) are six time champions CSKA Moscow who are in real danger of not qualifying past the opening group stage. It would be one of the biggest upsets in Euro Basketball history if the Russian side got knocked out.
