The First basketball type game may have been played by the early Olmec people of ancient Mexico as early as 500 years ago. The Aztec and Mayan cultures also had a game similar to basketball, only instead of a rubber ball they used the decapitated skulls of their conquered foes.
This displays how basketball had a different type of form but was thought of much earlier than the sport it is today. Furthermore, basketball was created by James Naismith. Naismith …show more content…
Basketball was created during the time when there were Jim Crow laws in the United States. Saying this, basketball was a luxury that could only be played by Caucasian people. However, this changed in 1950 by three men named Earl Lloyd, Charles Henry, and Nat Clifton. These three young men were the first African-Americans and minorities to play the game of basketball in the NBA. It took the NBA fifty-eight years to make this change to allow the minority group African-Americans to play basketball. Since the 1950s succeeded in allowing African-Americans to play basketball, African-Americans have dominated in participating in this sport at the top level which is playing in the NBA. According to Lapchick (2013), “African-Americans comprised 76.3 percent of all NBA players. Eighty-one percent of players were players of color” (2). In addition, African-Americans have increased their numbers in holding coaching positions in the NBA. According to Lapchick (2013), “African-American head coaches represented 43.3 percent of all NBA head coaches, the second highest percentage in NBA history” (2). This two quotes is showing the rates of a minority group that has change the game of basketball. This is important because the NBA and basketball has shown big progress since the 1950s about allowing minorities to play the game of basketball. Since this happen it has allowed a lot of African-Americans to become famous and recognize worldwide. Some African-Americans that has become famous and recognize worldwide are Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Derrick Rose, LeBron James, and Vince