March Madness, NBA All-Star Weekend, and countless hours of fun are all products of basketball. The sport was created in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith, in the state of Massachusetts.
Naismith had sought a game to keep athletes in shape throughout winter, initially using wooden peach baskets and a soccer ball. The game has since evolved substantially.
Contents
How Much Do Basketball Players Make?
In short, it depends primarily on where an athlete plays. The National Basketball Association of the United States – including one team, the Toronto Raptors, just miles north of the New York state line. According to Basketball-Reference.com, the highest current-year salary belongs to Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, raking in north of $34.6 million. The same source also indicates the average salary is $6,517,428, with the league median rolling into the shop at $3,028,410 – I wouldn’t be complaining, would you?
Fortunately for the lesser-talented players in the NBA, the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) provides numerous benefits for all levels of players. The minimum salary an NBA rookie can earn – the lowest across all experience levels – is $815,615 in his first year, according to Larry Coon of CBAFAQ.com.
The NBA G-League, formerly the D-League, is the developmental league of the National Basketball Association, similar to the relationship between Minor and Major League Baseball. Most G-League players have full-time jobs outside of playing professional basketball, earning either $19,500 or $26,000, according to Sports Illustrated.
Outside of the G-League, the NBA pays more than any other league across the entire planet. The EuroLeague comes in second place, with top earner Alexey Shved earning 3.4 million euros, compared to the 50th-highest-earning player, Cory Higgins, cashing in 910,000 euros annually, both statistics courtesy of FreeAgentSports.com.
How Many Laps Around A Basketball Court Is A Mile?
Yet again, our answer is… it depends. There are three main levels at which basketball is played: high school, college, and professional; at least that’s how we play in the United States of America.
Per SportsKnowHow.com – the same source that has indicated the dimensions of both NCAA and NBA court dimensions – the length of regulation-concordant high school courts are 84 feet in length, juxtaposed by their width of 50 feet.
In college, whose overseeing body is the National Collegiate Association of Athletics, both men’s and women’s’ courts – we regularly see them share the same courts – are 94 feet in length, and 50 feet wide.
Noteworthy are the facts that in-court dimensions of National Basketball Association courts are different than those of NCAA regulations. For example, the furthest three-point shot – behind the top of the key – measures 23 feet, 9 inches, whereas those of NCAA courts are 20 feet, 9 inches. Women’s three-point shots are one foot shorter, reigning in at 19 feet, 9 inches, identical to both male and female high school courts’ dimensions.
Despite NBA in-court dimensions being independent of those in the National Collegiate Athletics Association, the court dimensions are identical to those in college basketball.
With 5,280 feet in one mile, and the perimeter of a high school court being 268 feet, approximately 19 3/4 laps equal one mile. Further, as the length of NBA courts is 20 feet greater than high school and NCAA courts, 18 1/3 laps equate to one mile. However, because it’s unlikely you run on the black lines for 18 to 20 laps, especially when rounding 90-degree corners, running one mile will take slightly less than the above two calculations.
How Big Is A Basketball Hoop?
If you played basketball in high school or college – maybe even the NBA, by some astronomical chance – your coach may have demonstrated the true size of a basketball hoop. I remember the following being difficult to believe – I didn’t believe it until the head coach showed me – although two basketballs can, in fact, fit inside the same hoop.
According to Stack.com, all basketball games with males older than 14 years of age feature basketballs of 29.5 inches in circumference, or how much string it’d take to wrap around the ball at its widest point. Females older than 11 play with 28.5-inch-circumference basketballs.
Stack.com indicates the standard size of a basketball hoop spans 18 inches in diameter, or one-and-a-half feet between any two points directly opposite of another on the court.
How Many Calories Does Basketball Burn?
Unlike running, walking, swimming, kayaking, and most other exercises, calculating calories burned while playing basketball is difficult, as players don’t consistently maintain constant levels of effort.
According to the American Council on Exercise, three general levels of exertion exist in basketball:
- Game
- Non-Game, or General
- Shooting Baskets
A person weighing 150 pounds burns about 272, 204, and 153 calories, respectively, in 30 minutes’ play time.
How Many Timeouts Are There In Basketball?
Sports Illustrated indicates that, in the National Basketball Association, teams are given 6 100-second timeouts. No more than three can be used in the final quarter of action. They also get one 20-second timeout per half.
The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, which uses the same number of timeouts for all state-level standard-setting basketball games, allows teams five timeouts per game.
According to the NCAA’s official rulebook for regular season basketball games in 2017-2018 , teams are given 3 30-second timeouts at the beginning of each game. Also included is one 60-second timeout. Unlike other levels of basketball, college teams can carry over a maximum of two 30-second timeouts to the second half of play. The 60-second counterpart is available throughout the entirety of the game, although can only be used once.
