Basketball

Basketball was invented in the early 1890s by Canadian educator James Naismith. He developed this fast ball game as an indoor sport for his students, whom he taught at the university in Springfield, Massachusetts. He had the team, the team sport in mind when developing it. Basketball is both a school sport and a club sport. The team consists of five field players, who are supplemented by the so-called bank players, i.e. the substitute and reserve players. The ability of the coaches is also reflected in the fact that during the entire duration of the basketball game the team plays harmoniously. Basketball games consist of four quarters of ten or twelve minutes each. Basketball has always been an Olympic discipline and is played by both professionals and amateurs. Since the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, professionals have also been allowed to play here, both for men and women.
 

Basketball in Germany â€" from the Bundesliga to popular sports

The German Basketball Federation was founded in October 1949 in Düsseldorf, the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia. With its regional federations, their clubs and the individual members there, the federation is structured on a federal basis. About two hundred thousand women and men, girls and boys in the various age and performance categories play basketball in around two thousand clubs. As in other sports with their amateur, semi-professional or full professional sports, the Bundesliga operations in German basketball are also outsourced from the non-profit association. In football, for example, it is the Deutsche Fußball Liga GmbH, in basketball the BBL, the Gesellschaft der Basketball-Bundesliga mbH based in Cologne. The league system for women and men ranges from the Bundesliga down to the regional and local classes. In addition to promoting young people and the next generation, the organisation of match operations is one of the main tasks of the federal professional association based in the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Hagen. The DBB is a member of the German Olympic Sports Federation, the DOSB, which is based in Frankfurt am Main. Since the mid-2000s, the DOSB has also been responsible for nominations for the Olympic Games.
 

School sport basketball – the goal are federal finals of Jugend trainiert für Olympia

Basketball is a popular school sport from several points of view. With basketball training, sports teachers can teach a specific school class. Everybody is there, nobody goes unnoticed or unattended. Playing with the ball is fun in general, as is the case with handball, football or volleyball. And the fact that the basketball team plays against the team promotes team spirit. Everyone needs everyone in a basketball team, and vice versa everyone must give everything for their basketball team. The national competition of schools “Jugend trainiert für Olympia€ is a multi-sport event held every year. The school basketball champions are determined in several competition classes - local, regional and finally in the national. They are eligible to compete in the national finals in Berlin and there the German JTfO school sports champion is determined. In these girls' and boys' basketball teams basketball is played really well. Basketball training is organised by the sports teachers, who are often instructors or licensed basketball coaches. They often volunteer at the local sports or basketball club. This way they create a bond between school and club, which is as important as it is interesting for talent scouting and development in daily basketball training.
 

Basketball in the sports club â€" talent factory for the Bundesliga

The basketball matches in the Bundesliga are truly spectacular events. The role models are the professionals in the NBA, the National Basketball Association of the USA. The teams there are almost exclusively made up of highly paid professionals. For many boys and girls they are a sporting role model. In the approximately two thousand German sports and basketball clubs, the teams train once or twice a week. The teams play and train in school sports halls. Due to the school sport, the club training hours are on weekdays in the afternoon and evening hours as well as on weekends. For basketball training, the only equipment is basketball. The playing equipment with basketball baskets and field marking is part of the standard equipment of a school sports hall. For their basketball training, the players need sports-specific sneakers and basketball shoes in addition to their sportswear. They must be durable, hard-wearing, stable and light. They are offered by all well-known manufacturers of sports equipment for men, women, teenagers and children. Here in the sports clubs, trained coaches recognize and discover the talented basketball players. They are specifically promoted in the organised sports operations of the DBB through the state squad to the national squad. The change of team to the next higher league is more a question of time.
 

Basketball – the sport of the media

Nowadays basketball games are very interesting for the spectators in the sports hall as well as on the TV screen at home. The team sport is presented and commented on in an exciting way. When matches of the professionals from the US-American NBA or from the German BBL are shown, the speed of the basketball game is evident. Each move is recorded and zoomed by the number and position of the individual cameras. Whether field or ceiling camera, nothing escapes the home spectator, not to mention the sports fan in the basketball hall. The entire surrounding of the top-class basketball games is an event and adventure. This is consciously promoted by the game and league system. In the NBA, for example, thirty teams in six groups, the divisions, play for participation in the playoffs. Now, at the latest, German television stations and television stations are also reporting about the NBA. Since the mid-1990s, women's professional basketball in North America has been organized by WNBA, the Women’s National Basketball Association.
 

World and European Basketball Championships

The structured competition system ranges from the Olympic Games to the World and European Championships down to the German Championships. Internationally, the federations whose men's and women's teams are referred to as the national team must qualify for the respective final rounds. World Championships are held every four years. The 2014 Men's World Championships took place in Spain, the women's World Championships in Turkey. The World Championships are organised by FIBA, the Fédération Internationale de Basketball, based in the Swiss town of Mies in the canton of Vaud. FIBA Europe, based in Munich, organises the European Championships every two years, in odd-numbered years. The 2015 men's European Championship was awarded to Ukraine, the women's European Championship took place in Hungary. These sports highlights are all shown on television and are an occasion for many basketball fans to visit the events on site.

Basketball is still a booming and thrilling team sport.