【正文】 s prestige began to decline. Professional basketball remained a disanized and stodgy sport up until the late 1940s, with barnstorming still central to the game and most players still using the set shot. In 1946, however, hockey owners, led by Maurice Podoloff, created the Basketball Association of America (BAA) in the East to fill their arenas, but few fans came, even after Joe Fulks of Philadelphia introduced the jump shot. The BAA39。 Eddie Gottlieb39。s game by recognizing it as an Olympic event in 1976. Again, television coverage of the Olympics has been exceptionally important in drawing attention to international teams. The first professional men39。s original players were Canadians, and the game spread to Canada immediately. It was played in France by 1893。s National Basketball Association (WNBA) playoffs. And it has also made American heroes out of its player and coach legends like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Earvin Magic Johnson, Sheryl Swoopes, and other great players. At the heart of the game is the playing space and the equipment. The space is a rectangular, indoor court. The principal pieces of equipment are the two elevated baskets, one at each end (in the long direction) of the court, and the basketball itself. The ball is spherical in shape and is inflated. Basketballs range in size from in (7276 cm) in circumference, and in weight from 1822 oz (510624 g). For players below the high school level, a smaller ball is used, but the ball in men39。s five basic principles center on the ball, which was described as large, light, and handled with the hands. Players could not move the ball by running alone, and none of the players was restricted against handling the ball. The playing area was also open to all players, but there was to be no physical contact between players。s basketball. Until World War II, basketball became increasingly popular in the United States especially at the high school and college levels. After World War II, its popularity grew around the world. In the 1980s, interest in the game truly exploded because of television exposure. Broadcast of the NCAA Championship Games began in 1963, and, by the 1980s, cable television was carrying regular season college games and even high school championships in some states. Players like Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and Lew Alcindor (Kareem AbdulJabbar) became nationally famous at the college level and carried their fans along in their professional basketball careers. The women39。s World Basketball Association, before the WNBA debuted in 1997 with the support of the NBA. James Naismith, originally from Almonte, Ontario, invented basketball at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891. The game was first played with peach baskets (hence the name) and a soccer ball and was intended to provide 4 indoor exercise for football players. As a result, it was originally a rough sport. Although ten of Naismith39。s development: zone defenses, the weave, the passing game, and the fast break. In the decade preceding World War II, five events changed college basketball and allowed it to bee a major spectator sport. In 1929, the rules mittee reversed a decision that would have outlawed dribbling and slowed the game considerably. Five years later, promoter Edward Ned Irish staged the first intersectional twin bill in Madison Square Garden in New York City and attracted more than 16,000 fans. He demonstrated the appeal of major college ball and made New York its center. In December 1936, Hank Luisetti of Stanford revealed the virtues of the onehanded shot to an amazed Garden audience and became the first major collegiate star. Soon thereafter, Luisetti scored an incredible fifty points against Duquesne, thus ending the East39。s skills. Despite the pointshaving scandal, college ball thrived in the 1950s, largely because it had prolific scorers and more great players than in any previous decade. Frank Selvy of Furman and Paul Arizin of Villanova both averaged over forty points early in the decade, while Clarence Bevo Francis of tiny Rio Grande College in O