History of Professional Basketball

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History of Professional Basketball The history of professional basketball is spectacular and very interesting in the way it has grown since the 19th century. The game of basketball has expanded into a very popular professional sport among athletes and fans in the United States and other countries. The National Basketball Association has remained as the organization for professional basketball league as other organizations failed. Professional basketball has overcome many obstacles and challenges such as, different organizations trying to compete to be the best, players and teams switching organizations, players’ union and lockouts between the team owners and players. In 1898, the first professional basketball league, the National Basketball League, was formed in Treton, New Jersey (www.basketball.net). The National Basketball League was founded by a group of New Jersey newspaper sports editors after a dispute between members of the YMCA teams and the YMCA officials. The players decided to form a professional basketball team and to play for money. There were six teams located in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The National Basketball League had players becoming superstars such as Ed Wachter, who played 1,800 professional basketball games and Barney Sedran, who played on 10 championship teams in 15 years (Sachere 21). Also, certain teams were very successful in the National Basketball League which included the Buffalo Germans and the Boston Celtics. The Buffalo Germans won 111 straight games between 1908 through 1911. (Sachere 22) The Boston Celtics pioneered many strategies and tactics in basketball such as the zone defense. The National Basketball League eventually disband. The first major professional basketball team, the American Basketball Association, was organized in 1925 (Digger 32). The American Basketball Association was the first league to have

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