FRONT PAGE: A BASKETBALL HOOP Don’t EVER call me a basket with a hole in the bottom! Because you see, originally, I didn’t have a hole. I was just a regular peach basket, with my bottom intact. Then one fine day in 1891 I found myself nailed up, ten feet off the ground, to become a receptacle for balls. From that time on, my life changed dramatically, and the gentle fragrance of summer fruits was replaced forever by the smell of sweat. James Naismith, a physical education teacher at Springfield College in Massachusetts, was looking for a way to keep his young American students fit during the winter. His challenge was to find an indoor game that would promote fitness while avoiding injury. Naismith based his game around five basic principles: the ball would be large and light, and engaged with the hands; players would be able to use the entirety of the playing surface; running while holding the ball was not allowed; physical contact was also forbidden; and the goal would be small and high, so as to reward skill rather than strength. He drew inspiration from a traditional Canadian game called Duck on a Rock as well as, so legend has it, a Mayan game called pok ta pok. This ritual game, played to appease the bloodthirsty gods, required passing a rubber ball through a stone ring with their buttocks, hips and knees! The losers (and sometimes the winners) were sacrificed. Harsh. To construct the goals at each end of the gymnasium, Naismith had to make do with two old peach baskets which were attached to the viewing balcony 3.05m off the ground. The professor’s eighteen students were so enthusiastic about their new game that they proposed calling it “Naismith-ball”. But its inventor modestly declined, and the name “Basket Ball” was finally accepted. On 21 December 1891, James Naismith posted the Thirteen Rules of basketball on the wall of the Springfield College gymnasium. He had invented a game whose success would spread to every continent within the space of a few decades. Meanwhile, I was soon subjected to the indignity of having my bottom removed, to make it easier to recover the ball. Fine. In any case, this was just the beginning of my amazing transformation. You only have to look at my modern descendants: they are made of an orange steel hoop, to which is attached a white net Not much to look at, in my opinion, but they are certainly functional, allowing the ball to fall back onto the court after a goal. And, speaking of the ball, have you seen the one that is covered in signatures on the 3rd island of the Summer Games exhibit? Those are the autographs of the United States Dream Team, which beat Croatia in the final to take the Olympic title at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. The famous professional players from the NBA (National Basketball Association) were allowed to represent the United States for the very first time. The team threw a pinch of stardust over the entire Olympic tournament, and their participation led to a significant increase in the number of boys and girls taking up the sport, in the hopes of being the next Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan.