THE INVENTOR
This physical education teacher invented basketball in 1891.
James Naismith
This is the number of basic rules Naismith wrote for his new game.
13
The article uses this word to describe a game that can be played indoors or outdoors, by two people or ten.
adaptable
This organization's instructors, who trained alongside Naismith, helped spread basketball's rules to other cities.
YMCA
Some historians say basketball grew quickly because a player needs so little of this to play.
Equipment
Naismith's supervisor asked him to invent an indoor game to keep students active during this season.
Winter
This move — bouncing the ball while moving — was not part of Naismith's original rules.
Dribbling
The author calls dunking an impressive one of these, since the hoop height has never changed.
feat
Besides YMCA workers, this group also helped carry basketball's rules overseas.
Soldiers
Other historians credit basketball's popularity to this quality — that it can be played almost anywhere, by almost any number of people.
adaptability
This was the object Naismith nailed to the balcony railings at each end of the gym.
Peach Baskets
Before dribbling was allowed, this was the only way players could move the ball around the court.
Passing
This word from paragraph 3 means "gradually developed or changed."
evolved
This is the year basketball became an official Olympic sport for men.
1936
The article says a person needs only a ball and one of these to play.
hoop
After every score in the very first game, this staff member had to fetch a ladder to retrieve the ball.
Janitor
This is the height, in feet, that basketball hoops have been set at since Naismith's very first game.
10 feet
The article says the ten-foot hoop has stayed this way — meaning steady and unchanging — since the beginning.
This is the year basketball became an official Olympic sport for women.
1976
In the conclusion, the author asks whether simplicity is really the reason for basketball's popularity, or whether these also played a role.
other factors
This was the type of ball used in the very first basketball game ever played.
Soccer ball
The ten-foot hoop height was chosen simply because it matched the height of this feature in Naismith's gym.
Balcony railing
Peach baskets were eventually replaced with metal hoops and this other piece of open equipment.
Open nets
After YMCA instructors spread the rules, this is what colleges across the country did.
This sentence best captures the main idea of the article as a whole.
"Basketball began as a simple indoor game and grew into a popular worldwide sport"?