by Wayne Ramsey

Created on: April 06, 2007   Last Updated: April 12, 2007

The height of the basketball rim has a history that dates back over 100 years ago to Dr. James Naismith. While most people believe that the sport actually developed the 10 foot height of the rim during modern play in the National Basketball Association, the actually root of the height is actually considerably different.

In fact, the large majority of the sport as we know it today is still based upon a lot of the rules that James Naismith had established back in 1891, when he first setup the sport while working with the YMCA as a teacher of Physical Education. The YMCA had asked Naismith to come up with a game that could be enjoyed indoors, wasn't all that complicated to learn, and was a great deal of fun. It didn't take all that long before Naismith was able to come up with basketball, which has grown to be the most popular indoor sport in the United States.

With this huge popularity has come a great number of talented athletes throughout the years, each of which has pushed the game to new heights. But, regardless of how tall the players become, or how high they can jump, the height of the basketball hoop has been left unchanged during the entire history of the game.

The actual height of the hoop was first determined when Naismith, who while using peach baskets for hoops, hammered the baskets into the edge of an elevated running track. This track happened to be 10 feet off of the ground. This was the first original test of the sport, and it seemed like a logical, so when he finally brought the game indoors for a real world trial, the 10 foot height stuck. Now, millions of players later, and over a century later, with countless of other rule changes, the 10 foot height still stands.

So while others may make up countless reasons for why the height of the basketball hoop is 10 feet, the truth is a whole lot simpler than most would have thought.

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