Basketball is a competitive sport invented as a men's game in 1891 by James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, but now played on every inhabited continent and by women, most often contested by two teams, each comprising five participating players, for whom substitutions may be made. A team attempts to advance a sphrerical ball through a cast-iron basket with attached net and backboard, elevated such that the basket rim is–in most professional leagues–ten feet (3.048 meters) from the surface of the rectanguar basketball court, for indoor games usually made of hardwood and for outdoor games usually made of asphalt, on which the sport is played.
Offensively, a player advances the ball either by bouncing it himself whilst stationary or moving (dribbling) or by throwing it (passing) it to a teammate, such that a player, within the time permitted by a shot clock, eventually propels (shoots) the ball toward the basket; should the ball pass through the basket, one (free throw), two (field goal), or three (three-point field goal) points, depending on the distance from which the shot is taken, are awarded; the player, in most cases, to have tendered the ball to the scoring player is credited with an assist. Several strategies are employed by a team toward the end of generating uncontested shots for players, who most often begin a given play play in distinct areas—the center and power forward proximate to the basket (top of the key); the small forward and shooting guard proximate to the three-point arc; and the point guard passim. The team to have scored more points upon the expiration of the time alloted for the game, usually between 40 and 60 minutes and divided into four equal quarters or two equal halves, is the winner, and ties are most often settled during overtime periods.
A defense attempts to prevent an offensive team from scoring and to garner the ball for itself, employing various strategies to force an opposing player to surrender (turnover) the basketball, by dispossessing (steal) a player or successfully contesting his shot (block) or, upon an opponent's making an unsuccessful shot, overcoming an opponent to win the loose ball (rebound).
Certain disruptive contact, especially that by which an advantage is gained, is penalized (as a personal foul), as is unsportsmanlike conduct (as a technical foul), with disqualification often imposed on players who accumulate a pre-arranged number of fouls in one game. Certain means of ballhandling, such as one's running with the ball whilst not dribbling (travelling) or one's catching the ball between dribbles (double dribbling) are proscribed and, when committed by a given team, result in the awarding of possession to the opposing team.
The Toronto Raptors are a professional basketball team based in Toronto, Ontario, owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. They are currently the sole National Basketball Association (NBA) club based in Canada. The Raptors came into existence in 1994 as part of the NBA's expansion into Canada along with the Vancouver Grizzlies. However, the Grizzlies moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 2001, leaving the Raptors as the only NBA team in Canada.[1]
The Raptors endured the woes characteristic of many expansion teams as they struggled in their early years. However, after the acquisition of Vince Carter through a draft day trade in 1998, they saw success, enjoying record league attendances and making the playoffs in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Their best achievement to date was in 2001 when they earned their only playoff series win and advanced to the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Carter was eventually traded away in 2004 and the team is currently led by All-Star Chris Bosh.
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The Kohl Center is the indoor arena on the hardwood basketball court of which the men's and women's basketball teams of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Badgers contest games against other National Collegiate Athletic Association teams, most often those of Division I.
Named for United States Senator Herbert Kohl (pictured at left), who donated $25 million USD toward the construction of the arena, which replaced the University of Wisconsin Field House in 1998, the Kohl Center seats 17,142 spectators, more than the home court of any Big Ten Conference school save the Value City Arena of the Ohio State University Buckeyes and Assembly Hall of the Indiana University Bloomington Hoosiers, such that, having sold out each of its 16 regular season games, the Badgers team ranked seventh amongst all college basketball teams in total attendance.
Concomitant to the arena is the Nicholas-Johnson Pavilion, named for two-time men's team most valuable player and 1952 Look second-team All-America shooting guard Albert Nicholas and his wife Nancy Johnson Nicholas, who donated $10 million USD to the construction project, which comprises three practice courts and four extra locker rooms, each with an attached meeting room and classroom, to be used during multi-team tournaments.
 The men's and women's teams have enjoyed much home success in the Center, and the men's team compiled a 38-game winning streak at the arena between 2002 and 2005, conceding no intra-conference losses under head coach Bo Ryan while winning the 2002 and 2003 regular season conference championships, before losing to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Fighting Illini, then ranked first in the nation by the Associated Press and the National Association of Basketball Coaches and later the loser of the championship game of the 2005 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, and which the men's team had defeated to win the conference tournament championship in the 2004 Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament.
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Dejan Bodiroga (Serbian: Дејан Бодирога; born March 2, 1973) is an ethnic Serb and erstwhile Yugoslav basketball shooting guard, best known for having had success at both the professional club and international levels, having, with Olimpia Milano, won one Lega Basketball Serie A championship and one Copa Italia title; with Real Madrid Baloncesto, won a Saporta Cup title; with Panathinaikos, won three A1 Ethniki league championships and two Euroleague championships; with Winterthur FC Barcelona, won two Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto league championships, one Copa del Rey de Baloncesto title, and one Euroleague championship; and, with the Yugoslav and Serbia and Montenegrin national teams, three gold and one bronze Eurobasket medals, one Summer Olympics silver medal, and two Fédération Internationale de Basketball World Championship gold medals, in view of which and of his humanitarian work, he won the 2002 Sportsman of the Year Award from the Yugoslav Olympic Committee.
Born in Zrenjanin in the Serbian province of Vojvodina, Bodiroga began playing organized basketball aged 13 years and soon thereafter enrolled in the Masinac Zrenjanin basketball academy, rising to the club's first team level two years thence, where, aged 17 years, he was noticed by Croat center Krešimir Ćosić, a four-time member of the Yugoslav Olympic basketball team, who persuaded Bodiroga's family to allow the player to move to the Dalmatian city of Zadar, where he would play for the KK Zadar club; the move was an unusual one, inasmuch as most top young Yugoslav players ultimately joined either KK Crvena zvezda or KK Partizan, each a Belgrade-based member of the YUBA Liga.
During the Yugoslav wars that led to the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Bodiroga sought to leave Croatia but declined offers to play in the A1 Ethniki for Panathinaikos, of which Ćosić was then head coach, or Olympiacos CFP, as each contract offer was contingent on Bodiroga's accepting naturalized Greek citizenship. Instead, Bodiroga moved to Trieste, Italy, to play for the nascent Pallacanestro Trieste, then sponsored by apparel-fabricator Stefanel. In 1992, in his first season with Trieste, Bodiroga led his team to the Lega Basketball Serie A playoffs, averaging 21.3 points per game; the team fell in the first round but advanced further in 1993, defeating Fortitudo Bologna before losing a semifinal tie against Victoria Libertas Pesaro, the Copa Italia defending champion. The same year, behind Bodiroga, Trieste advanced to the finals of the Korać Cup tournament, losing to PAOK Basketball Club.
After Bodiroga's second season with Trieste, Stefanel withdrew its sponsorship for the team and instead undertook to back Olimipa Milano, to which each of the team's five most frequent starters and most reserves transferred for the 1994-95 season. Milano reached the Korać Cup final, losing the Cup title to ALBA Berlin, and reached the semifinals of the Lega Basketball playoffs, narrowly losing a best-of-five-game playoff to Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna, who were paced by Serbian Predrag Danilović, a 1992 National Basketball Association draftee and the 1995 European Basketballer of the Year, with whom Bodiroga's rivalry during the series garnered international attention.
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- They said playing basketball would kill me. Well, not playing basketball was killing me. — Los Angeles Lakers point guard and power forward Magic Johnson, on his returning to the National Basketball Association in 1995 after having retired in 1991 upon his learning of his HIV-seropositivity
- Just remember, their fans think their players are supermen. We'll we're the kryptonite, and we're going to win. — George Mason University head coach Jim Larranaga, addressing the Patriots team prior to their regional final game against the top-seeded University of Connecticut Huskies in the 2006 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Basketball Championship
- The first time I shot the hook, I was in fourth grade, and I was about five feet, eight inches tall. I put the ball up and felt totally at ease with the shot. I was completely confident it would go in and I've been shooting it ever since. — Milwaukee Bucks center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, on the sky hook move for which he became well known
- I can see Sue and I leading this team to many more championships...We're going to take this and learn from it. We worked too hard for this. — Seattle Storm power forward Lauren Jackson, about teammate point guard Sue Bird on the occasion of the Storm's 2004 Women's National Basketball Association championship
- I said it before we arrived in Athens, that we wanted to prove to the world that our bronze medal in Sweden was not a fluke, and we have achieved this. — Point guard Gianluca Basile, on Italy's winning the silver medal in the men's event at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, held in 2004 in Athens, Greece, in view of the team's having finished third in the 2003 European Basketball Championships
- If we played Boston four-on-four, without Russell, we probably would have won every series. Th[at] guy killed us. He's the one who prevented us from achieving true greatness. — Minneapolis and Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Rod Hundley, pictured, on center Bill Russell, behind whom the Boston Celtics won eleven National Basketball Association championships, including those of 1959, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, and 1969 over the Lakers
- There are really only two plays: Romeo and Juliet, and put the darn ball in the basket. — Oklahoma City University head coach Abe Lemons, on his disfavoring of complex offensive schemes as against improvisational play
- Basketball can serve as a kind of metaphor for ultimate cooperation. It is a sport where success, as symbolized by the championship, requires that the dictates of community prevail over selfish impulses. — New York Knicks small forward Bill Bradley, on the nature of basketball as a team sport
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- At the United Spirit Arena in Lubbock, Texas, the Texas Tech University Red Raiders overcome the University of New Mexico Lobos, 70-68, to earn head coach Bobby Knight the 880th victory of his National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I career; Knight, across his career also the coach of the United States Military Academy Black Knights and the Indiana University Hoosiers and thrice a Division I national champion, displaces Dean Smith, betwixt 1961 and 1997 the head coach of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, atop the enumeration of coaches by total career NCAA wins.
- In Denver, Colorado, the Denver Nuggets, in the team's home Pepsi Center, outpoint the Seattle SuperSonics, 112-98, to earn the side's sixteenth victory of the 2006-07 season of the National Basketball Association; the win is, as against 555 losses, the 800th of the nineteen-season career of head coach George Karl, who becomes the twelfth coach in league history to reach the mark.
- American small forward Paul Arizin, ten times a selection to the all-star game of the National Basketball Association, upon his retirement the league's third-best career scorer, a 1978 inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, a member of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, and putatively the creator of the jump shot, dies in Springfield, Pennsylvania, aged 77 years.
- At the EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Utah Jazz defeat the Dallas Mavericks, 101-79, to earn head coach Jerry Sloan the 1000th win of his twenty-two-season National Basketball Association tenure; Sloan becomes, after Lenny Wilkens, Larry Brown, Don Nelson, and Pat Riley—all save Brown honorees in 1996 as amongst the NBA's ten best-ever coaches—just the fifth coach in league history to tally 1000 wins across his career.
- Miami Heat shooting guard Dwyane Wade, having in the 2005-2006 season of the National Basketball Association been selected as a starting guard in the league All-Star Game, been honored as a second-team all-league performer, and in part in view of his having averaged 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game across the six games of the 2006 NBA Finals, been named Finals most valuable player for the Heat, winners of the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy, is selected by Sports Illustrated as the magazine's Sportsman of the Year; he becomes, after Chicago Bulls shooting guard Michael Jordan (1991), University of North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Dean Smith (1997), and San Antonio Spurs center David Robinson and power forward Tim Duncan (2003, shared), just the fourth basketballer to win the award since 1988.
- The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, to be situated at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri, and to open in 2007, inducts its inaugural class, which comprises 180 players, coaches, and other contributors, each previously selected as a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame; the class are represented by five of their number—Dean Smith, with the University of North Carolina Tar Heels thirteen times a champion of the Atlantic Coast Conference, eleven times a participant in the Final Four of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I men's basketball championship and twice a winner thereof, four times an honoree as national coach of the year, and across his thirty-six-year career a winner of 879 games, more than any NCAA Division I men's head coach; John Wooden, as a guard with the Purdue University Boilermakers thrice an All-America performer and in 1932 the national player of the year, and as a head coach with the University of California-Los Angeles Bruins nineteen times a Pacific Ten Conference champion, ten times–each across the period betwixt 1964 and 1975–a national champion, six times a national coach of the year honoree, and a winner of 88 consecutive games, and the winner with the Bruins and the Indiana State University Sycamores of 885 games; Oscar Robertson, as a guard with the University of Cincinnati Bearcats thrice a unanimous All-America, thrice The Sporting News national player of the year, four times a Final Four qualifier, and ultimately the third-highest-scoring player in Division I history; Bill Russell, as a center with the University of San Francisco Dons a national champion in 1955 and 1956 and in the former year the Division I tournament's Most Outstanding Player and across his four seasons a tallier of an average of more than twenty points and twenty rebounds per game; and James Naismith, in 1891 whilst at the YMCA International Training School the inventor of basketball, between 1898 and 1907 the head coach of the University of Kansas Jayhawks and in such capacity an instructor of Phog Allen–ultimately a winner of 771 collegiate games–and a contributor to the creation of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics—selected by the National Association of Basketball Coaches as exemplars.
- Play for the 2006-2007 regular season of the American Basketball Association, which is to comprise 49 teams situated across the United States, Canada, and Mexico and divided amongst three conferences and six divisions, begins; the season is the sixth in the league's twenty-first century iteration and the first for which John Salley, for eleven seasons a National Basketball Association power forward and center, serves as league commissioner. Twenty-six expansion sides—the Anderson Champions, Arkansas Aeros, Arkansas Rivercatz, Big Valley Shockwave, Brooklyn Wonders, Centinelas de Mexicali (styled in English as the Mexicali Sentinels), Chicago Rockstars, The Hollywood Fame, Hammond Rollers, Houston Undertakers, King County Royals, Jacksonville JAM, Las Vegas Venom, Miami Tropics, Orlando Aces (styled briefly as the Orlando Orange Men), Peoria Kings, Quad City Riverhawks, Quebec City Kebekwa, Richmond Ballerz, San Diego Wildcats, Southern Alabama Bounce, St. Louis Stunners, Tennessee Mud Frogs (calendared originally to begin competition in the 2007-2008 season), Twin City Ballers, Veneno de Monterrey (styled in English as the Monterrey Poison), Wilmington Sea Dawgs, and Waco Wranglers—commence league play and six franchises—the Cape Cod Frenzy (formerly the Boston Frenzy), Detroit Panthers (during the 2004-2005 season the Motown Jammers and the 2005-2006 season the Detroit Wheels), Maywood Buzz (during the first half of the 2004-2005 season the Orange County Crush, during the second half of the 2004-2005 season and the 2005-2006 season the Orange County Buzz, and briefly thereafter the Carson Buzz), Mississippi Miracles (formerly the Mississippi Stingers), Tampa Bay Strong Dogs (briefly formerly the Harlem Revs and thereafter the Harlem Strong Dogs), and Tijuana Dragons (formerly the Tijuana Diablos)—continue league play under new names, whilst twelve teams—including the Orange County Gladiators, Ohio Aviators, and Birmingham Magicians, which suspend operations but announce the intention to contest the 2007 season—to have partaken of the body of the 2005-2006 season do not begin league play.
- The 61st season of the National Basketball Association, the first in league history in which the All-Star Game is to be contested in a city in which a constituent side does not play (in Las Vegas, Nevada, at Thomas & Mack Center) and in the playoffs of which to a pool of regular season division champions the non-champion with the best winning percentage is to be added prior to the arranging of the top four teams in either conference by seed, begins as a game played at AmericanAirlines Arena betwixt the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat, the latter the 2005-2006 Southeast Division champion and, after a playoff quarterfinal victory over the former, ultimately the 2006 league titlist, becomes the first official tie in which the basketball featured–a Spalding synthetic microfiber dual-panel ball–is not fashioned of leather.
- The 2006-2007 regular season of the Euroleague, the premier European club league, begins. Seven teams to have contested the league's 2005-2006 season—Strasbourg IG (Strasbourg, France), in 2005 the champion of the Ligue Nationale de Basketball (LNB); GHP Bamberg (Bamberg, Germany), in 2005 the champions of the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) and the first German side to qualify for Euroleague play; AEK Athens BC (Athens, Greece), a 2004-2005 top 16 group qualifier; Olimpia Milano (Milan, Italy), thrice a Euroleague champion; Mens Sana Basket (Siena, Italy), in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 a Final Four finisher and the 2004 Serie A champion; BC Lietuvos Rytas (Vilnius, Lithuania), the 2006 Baltic Basketball League and Lietuvos Krepšinio Lyga regular season and playoff champion and 2005 ULEB Cup titlist; and Joventut Badalona (Badalona, Spain)—do not qualify to contest the 2006-2007 season and are replaced by seven sides—Le Mans Sarthe Basket (Le Mans, France), the 2006 LNB titlist; RheinEnergie Köln (Cologne, Germany), the 2006 BBL victor; Aris TT Bank (Thessaloniki, Greece); Eldo Napoli (Naples, Italy); Lottomatica Virtus Roma (Rome, Italy); Dynamo Moscow (Moscow, Russia), the 2006 ULEB Cup champion; and Real Madrid Baloncesto (Madrid, Spain), on eight occasions the Euroleague champion and six times the Euroleague runner-up—who advance to the ultimate league in view of national league and ULEB Cup play; the league, as in 2005-2006, comprises twenty-four squads situated across thirteen nations. Play for the 2006-2007 iteration of the ULEB Cup, in which twenty-four squads, including 2004 champion Hapoel Jerusalem (Jerusalem, Israel) and 2005 champion BC Lietuvos Rytas, situated across fifteen countries participate, also begins.
For other recent basketball news, see current sports events and the Wikinews Basketball portal.
- ...that, subject to the resolution of litigation, Slovenian player Miha Zupan will become the first deaf player to compete in Europe's principal club competition, the Euroleague?
- ...that the Criollos de Caguas, having, in view of pecuniary concerns, elected not to contest the 2005 National Superior Basketball season, returned to the league in 2006 and, after winning by one point the final game of a best-of-three-game series over 2004 champion Leones de Ponce, overcame the Cangrejeros de Santurce and point guard Jose Juan Barea in a best-of-seven-game series to win the 2006 league title?
- ...that Congolese center Dikembe Mutombo, who over his National Basketball Association career tallied more blocked shots than any player save center Hakeem Olajuwon and who also ranks eleventh in league history in career defensive rebounds recorded, is, alongside center Ben Wallace, one of just two players to have won four Defensive Player of the Year Awards and the only one to have done so with three different teams—the Denver Nuggets in 1994-95, the Atlanta Hawks in 1996-97 and 1997-98, and the Philadelphia 76ers in 2000-01?
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- ...that, in view of his having won the 1975-76 and 1979-80 National Basketball Association Coach of the Year Awards, of his having led the Boston Celtics to the 1981 NBA championship and the Houston Rockets to the 1986 NBA Finals, and of his having coached five franchises over 25 seasons, Bill Fitch was named to the Top Ten Coaches in NBA History squad despite having achieved a regular season winning percentage of just .460?
- ...that Košarkaški Klub Bosna, a Sarajevo side who compete in the Premier League of Basketball of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Goodyear Adriatic League, are the only club ever to have won the national championships and national cups of the Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and, in 1979, became the first Yugoslav side to win the Euroleague championship?
- ...that, after the North Dakota State University Bison, coached by Women's Basketball Hall of Famer Amy Ruley, appeared in six consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association Women's Division II Basketball Championship finals between 1991 and 1996, winning four, including one over three-time champion Delta State University, the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux captured three straight championships between 1997 and 1999?
- ...that of the five individual honors awarded during the National Basketball Association's All-Star Weekend—the Slam Dunk Contest title, the Rookie Challenge Most Valuable Player Award, the Skills Challenge championship, the Three-point Shootout title, and the All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award—at least two have been won by one player in the same season just twice, by Chicago Bulls shooting guard Michael Jordan, the 1998 game most valuable player and Slam Dunk Contest titlist, and Golden State Warriors shooting guard Jason Richardson, the 2002 Slam Dunk Contest titlist and Rookie Challenge most valuable player?
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