Three Reasons Why Basketball is Awesome

Basketball is a sport where people use an orange ball and dribble with it. This was invented in 1891 by James Naismith, who was a Canadian PE instructor at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. Naismith wanted to keep people active during cold winters with an exciting indoor game. The court can be divided into two sections, with a hoop at either end. There are two teams of five that each try to score by shooting a ball in the hoop, which is elevated 10 feet above the ground. Players can shoot shots like three pointers, layups, mid-range, and even half courts if they have good arc power. Basketball players must focus on practice to learn to make plays and score, whether they’re playing for high school, college, division, rec league, etc.  After reading this, I hope you are interested in either playing or watching more basketball!

1. Basketball is fun

Basketball is fun to watch because it is fast-paced. According to the Nbastuffer basketball players have “an average speed of 4.43 mph, the longest average distance and fastest average speed since player tracking began in 2013-14.” Speed like this happens due to the athletic bodies that most players have. Speed makes basketball fun to play because burning energy makes your body get tired in a good way, and it’s fun to work quickly with other people as a team. The types of plays you might see as a result of how fast the game is being played are: long passes if someone goes far, and lobs, which are when someone catches an alley-oop pass and dunks the ball.

Another reason why basketball is fun is that you can do drills to improve your skills and physical build. The drills I do as a basketball player are dribbling around cones for pace practice, push-ups, burpees, and laps around the gym. These workouts help me prepare for games and keep up with the pace of my teammates and our ops. I do these workouts every single day after school, outside in the land near my house or inside at the gym, to keep up my strength and embrace the fun of the game. 

2. Basketball can inspire people

Basketball can inspire people because you can learn and develop your character through basketball. According to BasketballMuseum, “Basketball isn’t just a game; it’s a powerful teacher of life and leadership skills. On the court, players don’t just compete—they learn essential qualities such as teamwork, resilience, communication, and strategic thinking that carry forward into every aspect of life.” Basketball can inspire people because there is community and friendship to help them improve in basketball. According to NBA Camp, “Basketball, often more than just a sport, transcends boundaries of age, race, gender, and culture. It’s a universal language spoken on courts around the world, connecting individuals from diverse backgrounds through the shared love of the game.”

3. Basketball has a good fanbase

Basketball has a good fanbase because there is real action. The teams that I like are the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors. My favorite players are Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown because they entertain me and many other fans. An ad for the Tar Heels describes the game as “live action” and “another exciting season.” Basketball has a good fanbase because the fans can easily get entertained by constant movement and exciting halftime shows.

Fans of basketball love watching it outside of games, too. According to Mighty Mike, the athlete behind the Mighty Mike basketball t.v. show, “What started as a pipe dream in the backyard and local gyms, then led to Mike performing and surviving an ‘Amateur Night’ performance on stage of the world-famous Apollo Theater … Mighty Mike took that dream and made it a reality and developed his own one-man halftime show!” Mike was also a member of the world-famous Harlem Wizards from 2001 to 2014.

Basketball fandom is important and fun because you build a community that you care about, whether it’s teammates you play with or fans you experience watching games with. It’s important as a fan to have good halftime entertainment because fans see players playing all the time, and this could get boring for them to watch it but halftime displays can be a one-time thing, which makes fans extra happy to watch it.