Basketball

Football is the most famous and popular sport in the world and next to it is basketball and other famous sports like handball and volleyball. Basketball is a widely-viewed sport; the purpose of this sport is to shoot a ball in a hoop; there are two teams which play against each other and each consists of 5 players; the goal is to prevent the ball to reach your  hoop, also to get a goal from a successful pass or a throw to the opponents' hoop.

What gives basketball this popularity? Basketball is well known for its usage of hands to handle the ball rather than football where players need to use their feet. Basketball is also popular for its tournaments such as the American NBA, National Basketball Association, which is the professional one in the USA, and the Euroleague.

One of the legends in basketball is Michael Jordan, he's a former basketball professional player his fame name is Air Jordan and this title was given in the contest of slam dunk contest. Michael played in the NBA for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards; he quickly became a marketed athletes; he was famous for his leaping ability and the slam dunk scores that he made, Jordan was also famous for his defensive abilities. He ended his career in between 1993 and 1994 after 15 season of the NBA.

Basketball was first invented by James Naismith in 1891; with the help of a physical education specialist Luther Halsey Gulick, he invented an indoor sport. At the beginning it was just a sport to replace football in the winter; it started with football then when winter came no-one could play in the freezing winter so Naismith thought of inventing a game which will be played in an indoor room.

The rules of basketball have changed since it was first invented; at the very start it had only 13 rules and the scores were only 1 or 2 points per each goal; the goal are measured by how far the shooter is to the hoop; at the beginning it had only one ring between the hoop and it was the 2 point ring ; a new rule came up and they added a new ring surrounding the hoop but a little farther than the two point ring; in the professional league this ring has been moved farther  to make it more difficult to achieve a three point goal.

The rules of basketball have changed slightly like the rule which prohibits players from throwing the ball unless they use  one hand or both; the change was that some players would use their fist so the rule was added that the use of the fist is a foul. There is a rule that counts for a goal which is the consecutive foul process; the rule states that if a team get 3 fouls consecutively while the other team has none then a point will be added to that team.

Basketball has a referee who starts a game by throwing a ball high and after it reaches the peak of the throw then both team players will jump to take possession of the ball; the game is divided into 4 quarters; both teams are going against each other to score and the team with the highest score wins.

Basketball isn't just about players' height; positioning is the most important tactic to create a strong pressure on the opposition team; for example the best position for the tallest person in a team would be in the center, also beneath the hoop, and the slightly shorter player who is more agile and has more control on the ball will be positioned as a point guard.  

Basketball is also famous in the UAE where we have the United Arab Emirates Basketball Association;  there have not been  many famous achievements but one of the best was the awards that they had in the FIBA Asia Championship; they won the award of the best performance in the year 1997; unfortunately they had the worst performance in the year 2007. In the year 2008 it was the first time a basketball team in the UAE achieved a medal; Al-Wasl finished in the third spot in the FIBA Asia Championship. The UAE national team are famous for their lack of height in the team but they manage this difference by their fast reflexes and agility.