The Origin of Basketball 篮球的起源

路瑾

Many sports in America were imported from other countries.European immigrants brought tennis， golf， bowling and boxingto America. Baseball and football came from other Old Worldgames. Only basketball has a truly American origin.

美國的许多运动项目都是从其他国家引进来的。欧洲移民把网球、高尔夫球、保龄球和拳击带到了美国。棒球和足球源自东半球的其他运动。只有篮球才真正起源于美国。

Today， basketball is one of the most popular games inthe world. It is played by millions of people. But the historyof basketball is less than 140 years. Who invented it？ Whathappened then？

今天，篮球是世界上最受欢迎的运动之一。数百万的人在打篮球。但是篮球的历史还不到140 年。是谁发明了篮球？当时发生了什么？

The person responsible for the popular game was Dr. JamesNaismith （1861-1939）. Dr. Naismith was a Canadian-American Physical Education teacher at the School forChristian Workers located in Springfield，Massachusetts. The weather was bad in the winterof 1891， and the students of the School had tostay indoors. As they could not take part in theirusual outdoor sports， they were unhappy， and some even got infights from time to time.

詹姆斯·奈史密斯博士（1861—1939）是这个流行运动的发起人。奈史密斯博士是位于马萨诸塞州斯普林菲尔德的基督教工人学校的加拿大裔美国体育教师。1891 年冬天，天气不好，学校的学生不得不待在室内。由于他们不能参加平日的户外运动，他们很不高兴，有些人甚至时不时地打架。

At this， the head of the school gaveDr. Naismith 14 days to create an indoorgame. The goal of this directive was to provide a creative andhealthy indoor game so that the students might have something toplay.

为此，学校负责人给了奈史密斯博士14 天时间来开发一项室内运动。这项指令的目的是提供一种有创意、健康的室内运动，让学生们有东西可玩。

It was not easy to invent such a game because it had to playindoors and the court was not so large. Dr. Naismith thought for afew days and soon he had a good idea.

发明这样的运动并不容易，因为它必须在室内进行，而且球场又不是很大。奈史密斯博士想了几天，很快就有了一个好主意。

It was a fast， exciting game with much moving and passingthe ball， which was played between two teams. In order to makea score， the player had to throw the ball into the basket ten feetabove the floor on the wall. At each end of the court， there wassuch a basket. At first， Dr. Naismith planned to have the ballthrown into a box. Having trouble finding boxes of the samesize， Dr. Naismith changed his plan. He usedthe basket instead of the boxes. He cut outthe bottom of the basket， allowing the ball tofall through. Originally， the game was spelled“basket ball”， not “basketball”.

这是一场在两支球队之间进行且需要频繁移动和传球的快速而激动人心的比赛。为了得分，球员必须把球扔到离地面十英尺（ 约3 米）高的墙上的篮筐里。球场的两端都有这样一个篮筐。起初，奈史密斯博士计划把球扔到一个盒子里。由于找不到同样大的盒子，奈史密斯博士改变了他的计划。他用篮子代替盒子。他裁掉了篮子的底部，让球从里面掉下来。最初，这项运动的拼写是“basketball”，而不是“basketball”。

It is believed that Naismith drew up therules of his new game of basketball in aboutan hour. Most of these rules still apply today.The game of basketball became an instantsuccess. The students found the game easy toplay and the rules easy to understand. Soon，basketball became popular very quickly and its popularity spreadwidely.

据说，奈史密斯大约在一个小时内就制定了他的新运动——篮球比赛规则。这些规则中的大部分至今仍然在用。篮球比赛一炮而红。学生们发现这项运动很容易玩，规则也很容易理解。很快，篮球运动流行起来了，而且流行范围很广。

At the beginning， there were 9 players on each side， becauseDr. Naismith had only 18 players then. So the first rule of playingbasketball is that on each side there shall be 9 players. However，the 5-player rule was adopted by the U.S. soldiers who playedthe game in Europe during World War I. Soon， it became aworldwide sport.

起初，双方各有9 名球员，因为奈史密斯博士当时只有18 名球员。因此，打篮球的第一条规则就是各方都要有9 名球员。然而，第一次世界大战期间，在欧洲玩这项运动的美国士兵采用了五人制。很快，这项运动就成了一项世界性的运动。

Notes：

import v. 引进

immigrant n. 移民

golf n. 高尔夫

bowling n. 保龄球

boxing n. 拳击

baseball n. 棒球

Old World 东半球

truly adv. 真正地

origin n. 源頭；起源

invent v. 发明

responsible for 负责……

locate v. 地处；位于

indoors adv. 在室内

outdoor adj. 室外的

from time to time 不时地

create v. 创造；开发

goal n. 目的

directive n. 指令

provide v. 提供

creative adj. 有创意的

court n. 球场；场地

instead of 取代

originally adv. 最早地

draw up 起草；制定

rule n. 规则

adopt v. 吸收

World War I 第一次世界大战

worldwide adj. 全球性的