Basketball is a sport played by two

teams of five players on a

rectangular court. The objective is
to shoot a ball through a hoop 18
inches (46 cm) in diameter and 10
feet (3.0 m) high mounted to a backboard at
each end. Basketball is one of the world's
most popular and widely viewed sports.
A team can score a field goal by shooting the
ball through the basket during regular play. A
field goal scores two points for the shooting
team if a player is touching or closer to the
basket than the three-point line, and three
points (known commonly as a 3
pointer or three) if the player is behind the
three-point line. The team with the most
points at the end of the game wins, but
additional time (overtime) may be issued

when the game ends with a draw. The ball can

be advanced on the court by bouncing it while
walking or running or throwing it to a team
mate. It is a violation to move without
dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the
ball with both hands then resume dribbling.
As well as many techniques for shooting,
passing, dribbling and rebounding, basketball
teams generally have player positions and
offensive and defensive
structures (player positioning).
Typically,
the tallest and
strongest members of a team
are
called a center orpower
forward, while slightly shorter
and
more agile players are
called small forward, and the shortest players
or those who possess the best ball handling
skills are called a point guard or shooting
guard.

HISTORY
In early December 1891, Canadian Dr. James
Naismith, a physical education professor and
instructor at the International Young Men's

Christian Association Training School (YMCA)

(today, Springfield College)
in Springfield, Massachusetts was trying to
keep his gym class active on a rainy day. He
sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his
students occupied and at proper levels of
fitness during the long New England winters.
After rejecting other ideas as either too
rough or poorly suited to walledin gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and
nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot
(3.05 m) elevated track. In contrast with
modern basketball nets, this peach basket
retained its bottom, and balls had to be
retrieved manually after each "basket" or
point scored; this proved inefficient,however,
so the bottom of the basket was removed,
allowing the balls to be poked out with a
long dowel each time.Basketball was
originally played with a soccer ball. The first
balls made specifically for basketball were
brown, and it was only in the late 1950s that
Tony Hinkle, searching for a ball that would
be more visible to players and spectators
alike, introduced the orange ball that is now
in common use. Dribbling was not part of the

original game except for the

"bounce pass" to
teammates. Passing the ball
was
the primary means of ball
movement. Dribbling was
eventually introduced but
limited by the asymmetric shape of early
balls. Dribbling only became a major part of
the game around the 1950s, as
manufacturing improved the ball shape.

Professional basketball
Ad from The Liberatormagazine promoting an
exhibition in Harlem, March 1922. Drawing
by Hugo Gellert. Teams abounded throughout
the 1920s. There were hundreds of
men's professional basketball teams in towns
and cities all over the United States, and little
organization of the professional game. Players
jumped from team to team and teams played
in armories and smoky dance halls. Leagues
came and went. Barnstorming squads such as
the Original Celtics and two all-African
American teams, the New York Renaissance
Five("Rens") and the (still existing) Harlem
Globetrotters played up to two hundred

games a year on their national

tours.In 1946, the Basketball
Association of America (BAA)
was
formed. The first game was
played in Toronto, Ontario,
Canada between the Toronto
Huskies and New York
Knickerbockers on November
1,
1946. Three seasons later, in 1949, the BAA
merged with the National Basketball Leagueto
form the National Basketball
Association (NBA).
The NBA has featured many famous players,
including George Mikan, the first dominating
"big man"; ball-handling wizard Bob
Cousy and defensive genius Bill Russell of
the Boston Celtics ; Wilt Chamberlain, who
originally played for the barnstorming Harlem
Globetrotters; all-around stars Oscar
Robertson and Jerry West; more recent big
men Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille
O'Neal and Karl Malone; playmaker John
Stockton; crowd-pleasing forward Julius
Erving; European stars Dirk
Nowitzki and Draen Petrovi; more recent
stars LeBron James, Kevin Durant, & Kobe

Bryant and the three players who many credit

with ushering the professional game to its
highest level of popularity: Larry Bird, Earvin
"Magic" Johnson, and Michael Jordan. In 2001,
the NBA formed a developmental league,
the NBDL. As of 2014, the league has 18
teams.
International basketball
The International Basketball Federation was
formed in 1932 by eight founding nations:
Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy,
Latvia, Portugal, Romania and Switzerland. At
this time, the organization only oversaw
amateur players. Its acronym, derived from
the French Fdration Internationale de
Basketball Amateur, was thus "FIBA". Men's
Basketball was first included at the
Berlin 1936 Summer Olympics, although a
demonstration tournament was held in 1904.
In 1950 the first FIBA World Championship for
men was held in Argentina. Three years later,
the first FIBA World Championship for
Women was held inChile. Women's basketball
was added to the Olympics in 1976, which
were held in Montreal, Canada with teams
such as the Soviet

Union, Brazil and Austral

valing the
American squads
The Women's National
Basketball League began
1981.

ia ri

in

Adho mukha vnsana, adho mukha

shvanasana[ : Adho Mukha
vnsana), downward-facing dog
Pose, downward
dog, or down dog is
an asana.
BENEFITS
BKS Iyengar asserts
that
this asana stretches
the
shoulders, legs, spine and whole body;
builds strength throughout the body,
particularly the arms, legs, and feet;
relieves fatigue and rejuvenates the body;
improves the immune system, digestion

and blood flow to the sinuses, and calms the

mind and lifts the spirits
Ardha Matsyendrasana

;Ardha Matsyendrsana), Half

Lord of the Fishes Pose, Half Spinal Twist
Pose or Vakrasana is an asana. The asana
usually appears as a seated spinal twist with
many variations, and is one of the twelve
basic asanas in many systems of Hatha Yoga.

BENEFITS
Ardha Matsyendrsana allows
the spine to be twisted all the
way from the base of the
spine to the very top. This
asana tones the spinal nerves
and ligaments, and improves digestion.