Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts

February 17 - Happy Birthday, Michael Jordan

      Posted on February 17, 2022


This is an update of my post published on February 17, 2011:




The greatest basketball player of all time (according to many) was born on this day in 1963.

Playing for the University of North Carolina and for the NBA's Chicago Bulls, he was nicknamed Air Jordan and His Airness because he could leap so high (he could even perform slam dunks from the free-throw line!). He helped the Bulls “three-peat”—winning three NBA Championships in a row.


Jordan earned five MVP awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All-Star Game appearances, three All-Star Game MVP awards. He holds several basketball records, was voted the greatest North American athlete of the 20th Century by ESPN, and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Jordan has also been a successful product spokesperson, including for Nike Air Jordan sneakers, has appeared in a movie or two, and is the majority owner of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats.

Did you know...?
  • As a sophomore in high school, Jordan tried out for the varsity basketball game but was considered too short. He was 5'11”. A friend of his, who was taller, did make varsity as a sophomore.
  • Jordan eventually wasn't “too short”—he ended up growing to a height of 6'6”!
  • Jordan retired from basketball mid-career and played minor-league and, briefly, professional baseball. A couple years later, Jordan made a short, sweet announcement with the press release, “I'm back.”


Learn basketball with some fun-and-vigorous drills.

Balancing the story...

It's hard to talk about how great Michael Jordan was at basketball without acknowledging that he was, by many accounts, a mean and bullying guy! That's such a bummer that his greatness didn't extend off the court. 

There are some basketball greats who are genuinely great guys in other ways, too. For example, Steph Curry uses his fame to do charitable things like providing nets to families in Africa, to combat malaria, and raising money for military personnel and their families. He is mentioned by many folks in the NBA - and by many fans - as one of the nicest guys in basketball.


Steph is currently only ranked 12th best of all time for his basketball prowess - but I'd rather be seen as a good guy who is a basketball great than as a mean person who is THE greatEST.

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January 20 - Anniversary of the First Game of Basketball

 Posted on January 20, 2021

This is an update of my January 20, 2010, post:


Dr. James Naismith invented the sport of basketball in 1892, while he was working at a YMCA in Massachusetts. Wanting a vigorous game that could help young men stay fit during the long New England winters, Naismith nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot elevated track, and each team of nine tried to make baskets using a soccer ball. (Five players soon became the norm.)


Doctor. Naismith named his new game basketball and created 13 rules, apparently incorporating some from a children's game called “Duck on a Rock.” According to his hand-written diaries, he was nervous about his new game.

That first game was a real barn-burner. The final score was 1-0. The winning basket was shot from 25 feet away.


Actually, it's lucky that the score stayed so low, because the peach basket had a bottom (baskets do have bottoms, you know!), and the ball had to be fetched manually from the basket after a goal. (Soon people realized the wisdom of drilling holes into the bottoms of the baskets so that the ball could be pushed out from below with a long pole. Metal hoops and nets replaced peach baskets in 1906, and soon people realized that the net could have an opening at the bottom, allowing the ball to pass through.)

Although Dr. Naismith was nervous about his game, it caught on quickly. The same year as that first men's game, Senda Berenson modified the rules for women and began basketball as a women's sport at Smith College. People in the YMCA began to go to other YMCAs in the U.S., and soon the sport had spread all throughout the country and Canada. As early as 1895 (a mere three years after the sport's beginning) basketball was already well established at several womens' high schools.


YMCA personnel decided that the rough game and the rowdy crowds it attracted were not compatible with the Y's mission, and began to discourage the game, but the boom of popularity continued as amateur and professional sports clubs and colleges began to host the game. The first pro league, the National Basketball League, began in 1898.

And, at that point, the sport was not yet a decade old!

Now basketball is played worldwide; it's an Olympic sport and a big business. Americans used to dominate the sport, but of all the players on the two most recent FIBA World Championships teams, only one was an American. Even NBA basketball has become globalized, with players coming from Sudan, China, Germany, Spain, Serbia, France, Croatia, Russia, the Virgin Islands, South Africa, Australia, Argentina, Lithuania, Spain, and many other countries. In the 2019-2020 season, 108 international players from 38 different countries filled the opening-night rosters with a whole lot of diversity.






Celebrate basketball's birthday!
  • Watch a game.
  • Play a game.
  • Go old-school: perch a basket (with a bottom!) somewhere high and try to make a goal. Use a Nerf ball or other soft indoor ball.
  • Play balloon b-ball.
Here is a word search puzzle.

Wheelchair basketball is great exercise for the participants and fun to watch, too. Here is a picture to color.

Also on this date:



National Heroes' Day in Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau 













Penguin Awareness Day



















(original post)



















The Day of Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan




Library Shelfie Day
(Fourth Wednesday of January)







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December 3 - World Trick Shot Day

Posted on December 3, 2019

(First Tuesday of December)

A trick shot - at least the kind of trick shot being celebrated today - is an especially fancy, gravity-defying, or unusual basketball goal. The Harlem Globetrotters - a team many credit with originating the trick shot - started this special day and ask people to post on social media their own best trick shot. Of course, everyone should use the hashtag #WorldTrickShotDay so that the Globetrotters and others can find and watch their derring-do!

In this video, a young woman makes
three backwards shots in a row!
I read that a lot of trick shot videos and photos
found on the internet are fake - and I don't know if
these shots (above and below) are, or are not,real!

This trick shot requires skills from juggling
more than from basketball, don't you think?
You don't necessarily have to be on a basketball
court to do a trick shot - some people shoot baskets
from rooftops or other higher-than-the-hoop places!



The Harlem Globetrotters have been around since 1926. They merge sports with entertainment, athletic ability with humor and personality. They even hold world records for some of their feats!

Check out some Globetrotter antics here.






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