What nationality was Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball?

And the first 15 years of the sport's existence, the net was closed and they'd have to get a ladder to pull the ball out of the net again. They didn't think to cut the bottom of the net open till 1906! (Thank you Stephen Fry and QI for teaching me this little bit of trivia)

when I was on holidays in Mexico, we visited ancient ruins of the Mayans,there was a similar game made out of stone circles on stone walls,was told that warriors played until death

Lady V, QI rocks!!

No one taught it to me, I read it.

my hometown of Springfield, Ma. is considered where basketball originated. The hall of Fame is there. At least it was when I last lived there.

Big thank to Coach Dunn for telling us the history of basketball every year, four years in a row... South River H.S. MD

And there was me thinking it was derived from netball but I guess as that's seen as a girl's game, it just couldn't be from that!

Uninitialized, I remember that too. A vertical hoop instead of horizontal.

Lady V, I was told there was a broomstick sized hole and they popped the ball out that way.

2gameORnot2game4mE, Could be because it's too cold further north.

good guess