【正文】 ssociations began governing the sport at the high school level, and the NCAA Rules Committee assumed rulemaking responsibilities for junior colleges, colleges, and the Armed Forces, with a similar mittee holding jurisdiction over women39。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 game changed radically in 1971 when separate rules for women were modified to more closely resemble the men39。s game. Television interest followed the women as well with broadcast of NCAA championship tourneys beginning in the early 1980s and the formation of the WNBA in 1997. Internationally, Italy has probably bee the leading basketball nation outside of the United States, with national, corporate, and professional teams. The Olympics boosts basketball internationally and has also spurred the women39。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 basketball league in the United States was the National Basketball League (NBL), which debuted in 1898. Players were paid on a pergame basis, and this league and others were hurt by the poor quality of games and the everchanging players on a team. After the Great Depression, a new NBL was anized in 1937, and the Basketball Association of America was anized in 1946. The two leagues came to agree that players had to be assigned to teams on a contract basis and that high standards had to govern the game。 under these premises, the two joined to form the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1949. A rival American Basketball Association (ABA) was inaugurated in 1967 and challenged the NBA for college talent and market share for almost ten years. In 1976, this league disbanded, but four of its teams remained as NBA teams. Unification came just in time for major television support. Several women39。s professional leagues were attempted and failed, including the Women39。s Professional Basketball League (WBL) and 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 indoor exercise for football players. As a result, it was originally a rough sport. Although ten of Naismith39。s original thirteen rules remain, the game soon changed considerably, and the founder had little to do with its evolution. The first intercollegiate game was played in Minnesota in 1895, with nine players to a side and a final score of nine to three. A year later, the first fiveman teams played at the University of Chicago. Baskets were now constructed of twine s but it was not until 1906 that the bottom of the s were open. In 1897, the dribble was first used, field goals became two points, foul shots one point, and the first professional game was played. A year later, the first professional league was started, in the East, while in 1900, the first intercollegiate league began. In 1910, in order to limit rough play, it was agreed that four fouls would disqualify players, and glass backboards were used for the first time. Noheless, many rules still differed, depending upon where the games were played and whether professionals, collegians, or YMCA players were involved. College basketball was played from Texas to Wisconsin and throughout the East through the 1920s, but most teams played only in their own regions, which prevented a national game or audience from developing. Professional basketball was played almost exclusively in the East before the 1920s, except when a team would barnstorm into the Midwest to play local teams, often after a league had folded. Before the 1930s very few games, either professional or amateur, were played in facilities suitable for basketball or with a perfectly round ball. Some were played in arenas with chicken wire separating the players from fans, thus the word cagers, others with posts in the middle of the floor and often with balconies overhanging the corners, limiting the areas from which 8 shots could be taken. Until the late 1930s, all players used the twohand set shot, and scores remained low. Basketball in the 1920s and 1930s became both more anized and more popular, although it still lagged far behind both baseball and college football. In the pros, five urban, ethnic teams excelled and played with almost no college graduates. They were the New York Original Celtics。 the Cleveland Rosenblums, owned by Max Rosenblum。 Eddie Gottlieb39。s Philadelphia SPHAs (South Philadelphia Hebrew Association)。 and two great black teams, the New York Renaissance Five and Abe Saperstein39。s Harlem Globetrotters, which was actually from Chicago. While these teams had some notable players, no superstars, such as Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, or Red Grange, emerged to capture the public39。s attention as they did in other sports of the period. The same was true in college basketball up until the late 1930s, with coaches dominating the game and its development. Walter Doc Meanwell at Wisc