Basketball Facts for Kids! Fun Basketball Facts for Kids

There are some truly amazing basketball facts out there that every kid should hear! Whether they like playing basketball, have dreams of making it to the NBA, or just love collecting facts, every kid should read this awesome list below!!

50 Amazing Basketball Facts for Kids:

How basketball began

1. Basketball was invented in December 1891 by James Naismith, a Canadian gym teacher working in Springfield, Massachusetts.
2. He needed an indoor game to keep his students busy during the winter.
3. The first hoops were peach baskets nailed to a balcony.
4. The balcony was 10 feet off the floor, and the rim has been 10 feet high ever since.
5. The baskets still had bottoms, so somebody had to climb a ladder to get the ball out after every score.
6. The first game was played with a soccer ball.
7. There were nine players on each team in that first game, because Naismith had 18 students in his class.
8. The final score of the first game was 1-0.
9. Naismith wrote 13 rules. Dribbling wasn’t one of them: players had to pass the ball.
10. Backboards were added to stop fans in the balcony from knocking shots away.
11. Early basketballs had laces, like a football.
12. Basketballs were brown until the late 1950s. They were changed to orange so players and fans could see them better.

Which basketball size is right for you?

Ball circumference in inches. Kids start with smaller balls; the NBA uses size 7.

Show the data behind this chart

Which basketball size is right for you?

Group	Count
Size 3 (ages 4-8)	22"
Size 4 (5-8)	25.5"
Size 5 (9-11)	27.5"
Size 6 (12-14)	28.5"
Size 7 (15+)	29.5"

The court and the rules

13. An NBA court is 94 feet long and 50 feet wide.
14. An NBA game has four quarters of 12 minutes each.
15. A team has 24 seconds to shoot. The shot clock was invented in 1954 because teams were stalling.
16. The free-throw line is 15 feet from the backboard.
17. The NBA added the three-point line in 1979.
18. The NBA three-point line is 23 feet 9 inches from the basket at its farthest point.
19. There are five positions: point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward and center.
20. A triple-double means reaching 10 or more in three categories, usually points, rebounds and assists, in one game.

The NBA

21. The NBA started in 1946. Read more about when the NBA started.
22. The first game was played in Toronto, Canada.
23. The NBA has 30 teams: 29 in the United States and one in Canada.
24. The Boston Celtics have won 18 championships, more than any other team.
25. Bill Russell won 11 championships in 13 seasons with the Celtics.
26. The player on the NBA logo is Jerry West.
27. The Golden State Warriors won 73 games in the 2015-16 season, the most ever.
28. The longest NBA game went to six overtimes, in 1951.
29. The highest-scoring NBA game ended Detroit Pistons 186, Denver Nuggets 184, in 1983.

Amazing players

30. Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in one game in 1962. Nobody else has come close.
31. That same season he averaged more than 50 points a game.
32. LeBron James has scored more points than anyone in NBA history. He was the first player to reach 40,000.
33. Michael Jordan won six championships with the Chicago Bulls and never lost in the Finals.
34. Jordan didn’t make his high school’s top team when he first tried out as a sophomore.
35. Stephen Curry has made more three-pointers than any player ever.
36. Kobe Bryant scored 81 points in a game in 2006.
37. Oscar Robertson averaged a triple-double for a whole season in 1961-62.
38. The youngest player in NBA history was Andrew Bynum, who was 18 years and 6 days old.
39. The oldest was Nat Hickey, who played a game in 1948 just before he turned 46.

Stand next to the NBA's tallest player

Type your height and see how you measure up to Victor Wembanyama and a 10-foot rim.

FeetInches

Tall and small

40. The shortest player in NBA history was Muggsy Bogues, at 5'3". He played 14 seasons.
41. The tallest were Gheorghe Muresan and Manute Bol, both 7'7".
42. Bogues and Bol were once teammates. They stood 28 inches apart.
43. Spud Webb won the Slam Dunk Contest in 1986. He is 5'7". Find out how tall you have to be to dunk.
44. Victor Wembanyama is 7'4", and his arms stretch 8 feet from fingertip to fingertip.

Around the world

45. Basketball joined the Olympics in 1936. The games were played outdoors, and the final was played in the rain.
46. The 1992 United States Olympic team, the Dream Team, was the first with NBA players. It won every game by an average of 44 points.
47. The WNBA started in 1997, and the Houston Comets won the first four championships.
48. Wheelchair basketball has been part of the Paralympic Games since 1960.
49. The Harlem Globetrotters were started in 1926 in Chicago, not in Harlem.
50. The Basketball Hall of Fame is in Springfield, Massachusetts, the city where the game was invented, and it is named after James Naismith.