What year were basketball players first paid to play?

Answer 1

Here's a snip from an online article by Douglas Stark... "The setting was Trenton, the thriving capital city of New Jersey. The date was November 7, 1896. The place was Masonic Temple, a multi-purpose building in downtown Trenton. The event was a Basketball game between the Trenton Basketball Team and the Brooklyn YMCA. The significance was that the game "presumably" represented the first professional contest in which the players were paid to play." Read the rest: http://www.hoophall.com/history/trenton_feature.htm

Answer 2

James Naismith, who invented the game of basketball, was the first one to play the game. He demonstrated the rules he had developed for the game (as it was initially conceived by him) by tossing a basket ball (two words) into a peach basket, ten feet from the ground. Subsequent to that, he organized players on teams in Springfield, Massachusetts (where the first players and teams played the game).

Answer 3

It is a sad tale... According to Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns book, Baseball: An Illustrated History, the first professional baseball player was a young James Creighton in 1859. He was the first pitcher to snap his wrist when he threw the ball. The slower "Dew drop" fooled batters and he won games. He was paid by the Brooklyn Stars and was lured away by more money by the Niagras. In thurn, their rivals, the Excelsiors, grabbed Creighton by promising him more money and a better paying job in the off-season. In essence - Creighton was also the first free agent. "On October 14, 1862 batting for the Excelsiors..., he hit a homerun, managed to make it around the bases then collapsed. He thought his belt "Snapped," he said. Actually, the force of his swing ruptured his bladder. He died in agony four days later. He was twenty-one." Baseball: An Illustrated History, Ward and Burns, p. 14 Babe Ruth

Answer 4

It was Washington Bullets Gheorghe Muresan. He is 7'7" (2,31 Meters) tall. Second is Yao Ming, he's 7'6" (2,29 Meters)

Answer 5

1965, According to James Naismith

Answer 6

Moses Malone in the 1978-79 season

Answer 7

1896