Discrimination In Basketball History

“We Got Next”. This phrase is most commonly used around the asphalt when vying to play the next game of pick up basketball. Founded on April 24, 1996, the NBA Board of Governors approved the concept of a Women’s National Basketball Association. The Women’s National Basketball Association is the most prevalently known professional basketball league in the United States for women, most commonly referred to as its’ acronym WNBA. It was finally the ladies’ turn as they made their statement that they would be playing the next game. The first season for the Women’s National Basketball Association began in 1997. Sheryl Swoopes, one of the league’s first sixteen players, was the first player signed by the WNBA on October 23, 1996. She signed with the Houston Comets, one of the eight teams in the

The WNBA is the organization for the women’s basketball program. In this organization, women are thought to be less athletic because they cannot dunk. The WNBA was founded on April 24, 1996. There are two hundred eighty-eights split into twelve teams in this league. Women teams play in NBA cities and wear uniforms derived from their NBA counterparts. Their season lasts from June to September and consists of 34 games. Laurel J. Richie is the President of the WNBA. Their TV partners are ABC,ESPN,and

The book “Last Shot” shows what a basketball game is really about. It doesn't just show you the game and who wins; It shows you how all the competitors need to prepare immensely to attempt to win. It shows you how the players could throw everything away with their grades or selling team merchandise for a maximum profit. During the read of this book, you are Stevie Thomas, teen writing contest winner. You get to experience the time of your life (at least from his perspective), which is going and reporting at the Men’s Basketball NCAA Tournament Final Four. You discover what the reporters have to go through and maybe what the players are told to do. Basketball is much more than just the game, it’s life.

On April 24, 1996, women’s basketball announced “We Got Next” as the NBA Board of Governors approved the concept of a Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) to begin in June 1997. Since that day in 1996 there have been many firsts for the WNBA: Val Ackerman -- the first president of the WNBA; Sheryl Swoopes -- the first player signed to the WNBA; Cynthia Cooper -- the league’s first Most Valuable Player; the Houston Comets -- the first WNBA Champions; Lisa Leslie -- the first WNBA player to capture all three MVP awards (regular season, All-Star and Championship) in one season.

But back to smaller concepts, marketing in the 1960’s the NBA was not that known due to its small scope. It was beginning to be televised and so it started to reach more people through that medium. Then we start to see how ideas are used to market the league better. There is an entertainment value aspect to it; we started to see the players on cereal boxes as a form of advertisement. In the 1970’s we start to see more competitive balance then in the

I know I will never forget my first WNBA basketball game. It was the inaugural season, the inaugural game in Madison Square Garden, June 27, 1997. The president of the WNBA Val Ackerman tossed the ball up in center court as cameras recorded Kim Hampton of the New York Liberty and Lisa Leslie of the L.A. Sparks reached to tip the ball. This was a huge event and the crowd's noise level was a complete acknowledgement of that fact. Madison Square Garden was packed, the lights went out and the screams got louder; this was history.

Professional basketball started to develop. As said by Reema “Teams flourished across the country throughout the 1920s. There were thousands of men's professional basketball teams in towns and cities all over the United States. Sometimes Players jumped from team to team and teams played in different cities. Leagues sometimes came and went”(slide 9). Many teams started to develop like the Celtics and the Harlem Globetrotters.

December 21, 1891- The birth of basketball. It has been changed from simply shooting a soccer ball into a peach basket to dunking a seven pound, leather ball into an iron rim. In the early years of the game, basketball was not as popular as other sports. In the 1985 NBA draft all this would change with the emergence of a 6'6" basketball phenomenon from Wilmington, North Carolina. Although going third in the draft, he recreated the game and is known as the best player to ever touch a basketball; he is Michael Jordan.

The Women’s National Basketball Association, more commonly known as the WNBA, is a professional basketball league consisting of 12 teams spanning across the United States. The league was founded in 1996 but didn’t officially kick off until 1997. While it’s not the first major women’s professional basketball league in the United States, the WNBA is the only league that has received full backing from the National Basketball Association, more commonly, the NBA. Now in its 20th season under the direction of league president Lisa Borders, the regular season is played from June to September with the playoffs spanning through the remainder of September into the middle of October. Although they have the full backing from the NBA, there are still a few discrepancies between the two leagues. Even though WNBA games are not as exciting as NBA games, the players of the WNBA deserve equal pay because the team mindset makes the game more challenging, players continue to show their hard work in the offseason by playing overseas, and they inspire young girls by providing for charities as a result of their work.

The National Basketball Association, or NBA has grown up over the last few decades. Once on the verge of collapse, and unwanted by television, the NBA has rebounded to become quite possibly the most popular league in the nation. It was through television that the league finally established itself as a worthy opponent to Major League Baseball and the National Football League. The NBA got its first television exposure during the 1953-54 season on the long-since folded DuMont network. At that time, baseball was still the national pastime, and pro football was beginning to take the spotlight as the favorite sport. Even college basketball was

NBA basketball is an exciting sport. The NBA features such star players as, Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, Keith Vanhorn, and John Stockton. You could ramble on all day about Pro basketball. And two big questions always come up when talking about pro basketball. Why are 2/3 of the NBA players black? And do black and white players have two different techniques for playing the game of basketball?

The game of basketball was invented by a gym teacher Dr. James Naismith in December 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts.

sport in 1891 as a way to condition outdoor athletes during the winter months. Not until a year later did a gymnastics instructor Senda Berenson Abbott adapt Dr. James Naismith's basketball rules for women.

Although men and women’s basketball are closer to being equal than softball and baseball, the leagues are still separate. America has a women’s league and a men’s league and never the two shall meet. A woman is not allowed in the NBA since she has the WNBA. The separation is strong, obvious, and seemingly permanent. Like basketball, they created softball to play indoors during the winter. The game earned the name softball and due to its easier properties was often “regarded as baseball’s stepchild” (Ring, p. 60). They passed the game down to women, as it seemed safe enough to limit the risk of injury. And so the separation began.

He got to thinking and started combining ideas from other games to make the game of what it is known today as basketball. Naismith invented this game in 1891 (Faurschou).