Invention of Basketball The sport of basketball was created in 1891 by Canadian James Naismith.  Naismith was to invent an indoor game at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts where he was a physical education teacher.  The game was to be created to keep the track athletes in shape during the cold winters and was to be indoors, non contact, and created in 14 days.
Naismith came up with a game that would become one of the most popular sports in the world using soccer balls, peach baskets for nets, and outlawed dribbling.  Also, fouls were called for contact to the player and  a "jump ball" at center was tossed after each basket, similar to hockey.  The rules have evolved and now dribbling is allowed, the team that gets scored on receives possession, and nets with rims are used.  Naismith created this great sport in a relatively short time and the concept of getting the ball in the hoop remains the same today.  The sport grew extremely fast, as Naismith coached basketball at The University of Kansas, which drastically increased the sports popularity.

For more information on the invention of basketball click  http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blbasketball.htm

Also, this short Youtube video shows more about the history of basketball http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzsbZ3oem3Y