News

LONDON 2012 BASKETBALL STADIUM GOING TO BRAZIL!

Former Olympic Minister Tessa Jowell confirmed today that talks have already been held with officials from Brazil about the 12,000 seat arena being used as part of their 2016 Games.

She told BBC London: "I had a meeting with the mayor of Sao Paolo who expressed interest in buying our temporary basketball arena after the Games are over.

"Those commercial negotiations are now underway between the city of Sao Paolo and the contractors, so the London 2012 basketball arena may well - when the Games are over - have a second life in Sao Paolo."

"It's a very good expression of the determination by host cities to keep costs down, and to move beyond the requirement that everything has to be iconic, permanent and possibly, in the long term, unused."

She said it would save London "several million" pounds.

RYAN RICHARDS GETS RATINGS!!

Ryan Richards is the name on everyone's lips after smashing it on day one of the NBA Combine trials in Chicago.

The well-respected Bleacher Report writes:

Richards came to Chicago without much fanfare as he wasn't considered one of the better international prospects like Dontas Motiejunas of Lithuania.

From what was shown, the 6'10 235 pound lefty looked impressive in the drills and was able to keep pace with many of the top collegiate talents that were competing. He looked smooth and showed off good athleticism for his size.

If he keeps showing solid skills in future individual workouts like he was able to do today, it would seem very likely for a team to take a flyer on him in the second round of this year's draft.

It only takes one team to fall in love with a player, especially is the case with foreign guys so it's definitely possible for Richards to become a bit of a workout warrior type of player and sneak his way into the end of the first round depending on how the next month goes.

Ryan Richards is the finest young basketball player that Kent has produced in recent years and is Kent’s best chance for representation in both the elite NBA and the GB Basketball team at the 2012 Olympics.

Ryan, who first played elite basketball with the Kent Crusaders, now plays his basketball full time with Spain’s Gran Canaria where he has quickly become a key member of their under 16 and 18 squads. Last season, while still only 14, Ryan regularly featured for the Crusaders men’s teams quickly earning his teammates and opponents respect.

Basketball is a much bigger sport in Spain than it is in Britain, with both Real Madrid and Barcelona fielding professional basketball sides. Richards has shown a huge improvement already after accepting the scholarship to Gran Canria’s academy. Recently he top scored with 33 points heling the Gran Canria regional team to a national championship.

Ryan, now 15 and originally from Sittingbourne, came back to Britain recently and we took the opportunity to talk to him first time about life in Spain:

How does playing in Spain compare to playing in England?

I’ve been in Spain for about six months now and it’s been great. Things are a lot different over here and it’s a whole different culture. We train here everyday and at first I struggled a bit with it. There’s a lot of lifting weights and I’ve improved a lot physically and my game has come on a lot. Living on my own in a different country has been good for me and I feel I’ve improved both as a player and as a person.

What’s it been like getting used to life in Spain – have you learned the language?

I’m still learning the language but Canaria has loads of guys from all over the world, from places like the Czech Republic and Somalia and most of them speak pretty good English so it’s been alright so far.

And the food?

The food’s alright, most of the time we’re on a special diet to help us put on weight but on Sundays we get to eat traditional food like Paella.

What do you hope to do next?

Well I want to go North and get a contract with one of the big clubs like Barcelona or Real Madrid, they have the same badge and everything as the football clubs. Then I want to go to America to one of the colleges and finally to the NBA!

Good luck with that!

Thanks

What’s it like being back in the UK?

Cold! It feels very cold over here. I’ve been training with the guys (Kent Crusaders) and it felt good to be back, although all the plays have changed and I didn’t really know what was going on.

What are the coaches like in Spain?

The training in Spain is really good, I’m stronger a lot faster and my fundamentals have improved a lot

Does your new coach shout as much as Jesse? (Jesse Sazant, Kent’s head coach)

(Laughs) No, no one shouts as much as him!

Standard Life is proud to support British Basketball and Team GB on the journey to London 2012

Basketball originated in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA in December 1891 when Dr. James Naismith tossed a ball into a peach basket. Today in the UK it has risen to become the third largest participative team sport after football and cricket.

Standard Life is proud to support British Basketball and Team GB on the journey to London 2012. We will be with Team GB every second, every shot, every pass, every block of the way to help them achieve their potential.

The road to London 2012 begins at ‘Game On At The O2’. Visit the 'Game On' website for a full schedule of events and join us with your support for the teams.

History of Adidas

Adi Dassler - the man who gave adidas its name

Adolf Dassler was inspired by a single idea when he made his first shoes in 1920, at the age of just 20. His vision was to provide every athlete with the best footwear for his respective discipline. It was this principle that guided him right up until his death in 1978. 700 patents and other industrial property rights worldwide are proof of his permanent quest for perfection. His first shoe, made from the few materials available in the difficult post-war period, was produced from canvas. A passionate athlete himself, from the very beginning Adi Dassler was in close contact with sports participants and was always present in person at important sports events. Adi Dassler focused his work on the classic disciplines of track and field. Athletes wore special shoes from his workshop for the first time at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. In the mid 1920s he was already experimenting with spikes. In the mid 1930s Adi Dassler was already making 30 different shoes for eleven sports, and he had a workforce of almost 100 employees. In less than two decades adidas advanced to become the world’s leading sports shoe manufacturer. After the turmoil of the Second World War, Adi Dassler made a fresh start. In 1947, with 47 workers, he began putting into practice the knowledge gained from the pre-war period and also new ideas. Adi Dassler made the first post-war sports shoes using canvas and rubber from American fuel tanks. In 1948 he introduced adidas as the company name, a combination of his own first and last name. One year later he registered the - to this day - unmistakable Three Stripes. The breakthrough came for Adi Dassler when Germany won the Soccer World Cup in 1954. In the legendary Final against Hungary, the German team wore boots with screw-in studs – by adidas. Parallel to the rapid developments in sport, Adi Dassler strove to specialize and optimize his products. Adi Dassler was the first entrepreneur to use sports promotion in order to make the public aware of his innovations. He started using well-known athletes as advertising for his products. Many famous athletes such as Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali, Max Schmeling, Sepp Herberger and Franz Beckenbauer counted themselves among the friends of the Dassler Family. Aggressive publicity became one of the cornerstones of his corporate policy. From now on, Adi Dassler came up with a product innovation for every major event, documenting the superiority of adidas footwear. In constant contact with active athletes in a wide variety of disciplines, he developed the optimal shoe for almost every sport. Together with his son Horst, Adi Dassler created an international company that was, and still is, present at all the world’s sporting events. From the mid 1960s, adidas also started producing apparel for competition and training. Ball production began in 1963, and ever since 1970 the Official Matchball at all major soccer events has been an adidas product. Adi Dassler died in 1978, at the age of 78. Carrying on his heritage and his ideas, his name and his developments will continue to help athletes in their efforts to push the limits of performance, on into the new millennium. Following the death of the company founder, Adi Dassler’s widow Käthe and his son Horst took charge of running the company. Horst Dassler perfected the opportunities offered by sports promotion. Under his guidance, adidas became a global leader in the sector of innovations in sports marketing. He was also responsible for establishing the brand in France. Horst Dassler died unexpectedly in 1987, at the early age of 51. In 1989, adidas was transformed into a corporation (“Aktiengesellschaft”). At the beginning of the 1990s, after a difficult transition period, adidas returned to its roots and its original objective. Producing top products in top quality again became the company’s guiding principle. In 1991, adidas launched adidas EQUIPMENT, a line of performance-oriented, functional footwear and apparel. With streetball in 1992, adidas started specifically addressing a younger target group. In 1993, Robert Louis-Dreyfus took over management of the company. The Frenchman initiated the comeback of the Three Stripes. In 1995, the adidas share was one of the most interesting new introductions on the stock market. In 1997, adidas AG and the Salomon group combined to form adidas-Salomon AG. Since 2001, Herbert Hainer has been leading the Group.In October 2005, the Salomon business segment, including the related subsidiaries and brands Salomon, Mavic, Bonfire, Arc’Teryx and Cliché, was sold to the Finnish Amer Sports Corporation. On January 31, 2006, Reebok International Ltd. was acquired providing the new adidas Group with a footprint of around €9.5 billion ($11.8 billion) in the global athletic footwear, apparel and hardware markets.

Michael Jordan Mini Biography

MICHAEL JORDAN Mini Biography

Birth Name

Michael Jeffrey Jordan

Nickname

His Airiness
Air Jordan
MJ

Height

6' 6" (1.98 m)

Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born in Brooklyn, New York on February 17, 1963. He was the fourth of five children born to James and Deloris. James Jordan was a mechanic and Deloris Jordan was a bank teller. Soon after Michael's birth, James and Deloris felt that the streets of Brooklyn were unsafe to raise a family, so they moved the family to Wilmington, North Carolina.

As a youngster, Michael immediately became interested in sports. However, it was baseball not basketball that was his first love. He would play catch in the yard with his father, who loved baseball. He soon started to play basketball to try and follow in the footsteps of his older brother, Larry, whom he idolized growing up.

At Laney High School, as a sophomore, he decided to try out for the varsity team but was cut because he was raw and undersized. The following summer, he grew four inches and practiced tirelessly. The hard work paid off as he averaged 25 points per game in his last two years and was selected to the McDonald's All-American Team as a senior.

Following high school, he earned a basketball scholarship from North Carolina University where he would play under legendary coach Dean Smith. In his first year, he was named ACC Freshman of the Year. He would help lead the Tar heels to the 1982 NCAA Championship, making the game-winning shot.

After winning the Naismith College Player of the Year award in 1984, Jordan decided to leave North Carolina to enter the NBA draft. Although he decided to leave college early, he would later return to the university in 1986 to complete his degree in geography.

In the 1984 NBA draft, he was selected with the third overall pick by the Chicago Bulls. As a rookie for the Bulls, he made an immediate impact, averaging an amazing 28.2 points a game, including six games where he scored 40+ points. He was selected to the NBA All-Star Game and named Rookie of the Year. This would just be the beginning of a career filled with awards and accolades. In the upcoming years, he would go on to win five regular season MVP awards, six NBA championships, six NBA finals MVP awards, three All-Star game MVP awards, and a defensive player of the year award.

In 1993, tragedy struck Jordan's seemingly perfect life. On July 23, 1993, his father, James, was murdered off Interstate 95 in North Carolina. Two locals had robbed him, shot him in the chest and threw his body in a swamp.

Three months later on October 6, 1993, following a run of three consecutive NBA championships, Jordan announced his retirement from basketball citing that "he no longer had the desire to play." Now "retired" at age 33, it was uncertain what Jordan would do next. Would he take a year off out of the public eye to grieve and then come back to the Bulls? Would he go out and look for a white collar job in the field of geography, his college major? Or would he take up a completely different hobby like golf?

In early 1994, Jordan decided to take up a new hobby alright. However, it wasn't golf. It was baseball. Despite not playing baseball since high school some 13 years ago, he signed a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox in 1994. He played one unspectacular season for the Double-A Birmingham Barons.

On March 18, 1995, Jordan, a man of few words since his retirement, sent two important words to media sources everywhere: "I'm Back". He celebrated his return to the NBA by doing what he always did best: beating the New York Knicks. He lit them up for 55 points on March 29th. Although the Bulls would lose in the playoffs to the Orlando Magic, it was obvious that Jordan was still the same superstar player. He would go on to lead the Bulls to three more consecutive NBA championships and etch his place in the history as the "NBA's greatest player of all-time".

On January 13, 1999, Jordan re-announced his retirement, saying that "he was 99.9 percent sure that he would never play again". Soon after, Jordan became part owner of the Washington Wizards.

Near the start of the 2001-02 season, there were hints that Jordan may try another comeback to the NBA. On September 25, 2001, Jordan confirmed those rumours, announcing that he would once again return to the NBA as a member of the Wizards. His two seasons in Washington were mediocre at best. His statistics were solid and he showed some flashes of his old self but he could not lead the Wizards to the playoffs and missed several games due to injury. He retired for good following the 2002-03 season and was subsequently dismissed as president of the Washington Wizards.

In June 2006, he became part owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. Later that year, he filed for divorce from Juanita, his wife of 17 years. They have three children together.

History of Basketball Seminar 1

HISTORY OF BASKETBALL

BY MR SHAW

James Naismith was the Canadian physical education instructor who invented basketball in 1891. James Naismith was born in Almonte, Ontario and educated at McGill University and Presbyterian Cllege in Montreal. He was the physical education teacher at McGill University (1887 to 1890) and at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts (1890 to 1895). At Springfield College (which was then the Y.M.C.A. training school), James Naismith, under the direction of American phys-ed specialist Luther Halsey Gulick, invented the indoor sport of basketball.

The first formal rules were devised in 1892. Initially, players dribbled a soccer ball up and down a court of unspecified dimensions. Points were earned by landing the ball in a peach basket. Iron hoops and a hammock-style basket were introduced in 1893. Another decade passed, however, before the innovation of open-ended nets put an end to the practice of manually retrieving the ball from the basket each time a goal was scored.

In 1959, James Naismith was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame (called the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.)

These are James Naismith original thirteen rules of basketball:

The ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands.

The ball may be batted in any direction with one or both hands, but never with the fist.

A player cannot run with the ball. The player must throw it from the spot on which he catches it, allowance to be made for a man running at good speed.

The ball must be held in or between the hands. The arms or body must not be used for holding it.

No shouldering, holding, pushing, striking or tripping in any way of an opponent. The first infringement of this rule by any person shall count as a foul; the second shall disqualify him until the next goal is made or, if there was evident intent to injure the person, for the whole of the game. No substitution shall be allowed.

A foul is striking at the ball with the fist, violations of Rules 3 and 4 and such as described in Rule 5.

If either side make three consecutive fouls it shall count as a goal for the opponents (consecutive means without the opponents in the meantime making a foul).

Goal shall be made when the ball is thrown or batted from the ground into the basket and stays there, providing those defending the goal do not touch or disturb the goal. If the ball rests on the edge and the opponents move the basket, it shall count as a goal.

When the ball goes out of bounds, it shall be thrown into the field and played by the first person touching it. In case of dispute the umpire shall throw it straight into the field. The thrower-in is allowed five seconds. If he holds it longer, it shall go to the opponent. If any side persists in delaying the game, the umpire shallcall a foul on them.

The umpire shall be judge of the men and shall note the fouls and notify the referee when three consecutive fouls have been made. He shall have the power to disqualify men according to Rule 5.

The referee shall be the judge of the ball and decide when it is in play in bounds, to which side it belongs, and shall keep the time. He shall decide when a goal has been made and keep account of the goals with any other duties that are usually performed by a referee.

The time shall be two 15-minute halves with five minutes' rest between.

The side making the most goals in that time shall be declared the winners.

Patent Drawing: Basketball

©

Copyright 2010 By B. Shaw Adidas Playball For Schools

Basketball Academy

Seminar 1