The competition that would become March Madness dates back to the NCAA's first Division...

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Michael Jordan of the 1992 U.S. men's Olympic basketball team, called the Dream Team,...

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Basketball inventor James Naismith holding a ball and a peach basket, the first basketball...

UPI/Bettmann Archive

Players shooting into a closed-bottom peach basket in an outdoor game of basketball,...

Courtesy of the Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.

Female students playing basketball in a gymnasium, Western High School, Washington,...

Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZC4-9676)

“Dr. J” led the 76ers to the NBA finals four times in seven years, including their...

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American basketball player Wilt Chamberlain (right) battling Bill Russell (center),...

AP

American basketball player Ben Bluitt of Loyola University (Chicago) foiling a basket...

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Reece (“Goose”) Tatum of the Harlem Globetrotters holding the ball, 1952.

UPI/Bettmann Archive

Maryland's Kristi Toliver (20) shooting over Duke's Abby Waner in the 2006 NCAA women's...

Winslow Townson/AP

Sabrina Ionescu (right) of the New York Liberty during a WNBA game against the Las...

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American basketball player Anne Donovan (center) of the United States attempting...

Focus on Sports

Players competing in a FIBA 3x3 basketball World Tour Masters tournament in Debrecen,...

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Diagram showing the dimensions of an NBA basketball court and ball.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Naismith created the game of basketball as a way to make physical education more...

agefotostock/Alamy

When a basketball player shoots a jump shot, the ball always follows an arcing path....

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The U.S. professional court is shown. The U.S. college court has similar dimensions...

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