As the story goes, the first game of basketball was played on Dec. 21, 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts. James Naismith, a physical education instructor, invented the sport as an activity for his students at the Springfield YMCA. One thing led to another, and basketball became pretty popular.
Nowadays, we take a global game and multi-billion-dollar league for granted. But on basketball's 125-year anniversary, we at ThePostGame thank basketball with these 125 reasons we love the sport.
1. MJ's final shot with the Bulls
2. Stephen Curry's ridiculous 3-pointers
3. Craig Sager
4. Dickie V
5. Wonderfully obnoxious student sections
6. One Shining Moment
7. Christmas Day games
8. LeBron's Block
9. Popovich's interviews
10. The old NBA on NBC theme song
11. A perfectly executed pick and roll
12. Alley Oops
13. Old school "fieldhouses"
14. Spurs' role players
15. Charles Barkley being a dominant rebounder at 6'6"
16. Game 7s
17. Pick-up games with "Winners" ball
18. When a Walk-on gets his big moment
19. The Dream Team
20. Bird vs. Magic
21. Phil Jackson, The Zen Master
22. When Kobe passed the ball to Ron Artest
23. The Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki Pax Romana of power forwards
25. NBA All-Star Weekend
26. Late night Inside the NBA
27. "ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE"
28. Rick Barry's free throw shooting
29. Relating NBA 2K to real life
30. Kevin Love carrying on the tradition of the Wes Unseld Outlet Pass
31. Bench reactions from the underdog during a tight March Madness game
32. Free-throw line dunks
34. A big man deciding he's going to shoot a 3-pointer because it looks fun
35. Really short players dunking
36. Boban
37. A perfect no-look pass
38. Threading the needle
39. Free throw routines
40. Kevin Harlan broadcasting ads
i love kevin harlan pic.twitter.com/bmz1KVYtln
— James Herbert (@outsidethenba) October 26, 2016
41. Russell Westbrook trying to break the rim
42. When players get on the Kiss Cam
43. Jason Williams' off-the-elbow passes
44. A shot block that gets stolen mid-air
45. An in-game off-the-backboard dunk
46. Kobe's stare
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47. Crying Michael Jordan memes
Our first, and most likely our last #WorthIt pic.twitter.com/aOvpLg1Emk
— ThePostGame.com (@ThePostGame) April 14, 2016
48. The Van Gundys
49. Mike Breen's "BANG!"
50. Gus Johnson getting excited
51. Bill Raftery's "ONIONS!"
52. Uncle Drew
53. J.R. Smith's bare chest
Swish & Larry. #OneForTheLand pic.twitter.com/XZM1sTltKp
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) June 22, 2016
54. The texture of a new basketball
On Dec 21, the world celebrates basketball's 125th anniversary. @Spalding is celebrating with these 125 limited edition balls. #125HoopYears pic.twitter.com/WkK69d3W7y
— Jeff Eisenband (@JeffEisenband) December 19, 2016
55. Spike Lee vs. Reggie Miller
56. Jack Nicholson at Staples Center
57. The old Big East
58. Hating Duke
60. Legends of Pete Maravich
61. Bill Walton's love for everything
62. The Dream Shake
63. Geno Auriemma's dominance
64. Pat Summitt's legacy
65. Allen Iverson stepping over Tyronn Lue
66. The Fab Five
67. Space Jam
68. Rasheed Wallace technical fouls
69. Carmelo Anthony feeling old at the Olympics
70. And 1 gear
71. Air Jordans
72. NBA Twitter
73. Drake interacting with players
74. The Starters
76. Dwyane Wade's Euro step
77. NBA Draft Lottery magic
78. Lob City
79. Marv Albert's "YES!"
80. The floater
81. The sky hook
82. Phi Slama Jama
83. Buzzer Beaters
84. Shaq dominating
85. NBA Draft Suits
86. Posters
87. Full-court prayers
88. Players jumping over courtside seats
89. Distracting players at the free throw line
90. Backboard-shattering dunks
91. Allen Iverson crossovers
92. Pregame handshakes
93. Old school trash talk
94. When players ball in masks
95. JaVale McGee messing up
96. When players try to pad their stats to get triple-doubles
97. The shoes
98. When Klay Thompson gets hot
99. A rainbow three
100. WNBA Dunks
101. Chantel Osahor's jump shot
102. 24 hours of college basketball
103. 1965-66 Texas Western Championship Team
104. NBA fashion before the dress code
105. 1990 Skybox basketball cards
Skybox 4 lyfe. pic.twitter.com/O1RxsXnKJF
— Zach Schotz (@BeardedSchotz) December 21, 2016
106. The MJ fadeaway
107. Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game
108. When lay-up lines are for sick dunks
109. Unbelievable recruiting mixtape videos
110. When a ref actually calls a travel
111. Awesome pictures of basketball hoops
112. Basketball art
113. Drake & Doris Burke
114. NBA players trying to rap
115. Stephen A. Smith's rant on Kwame Brown
116. Fantasy basketball
117. Selection Sunday
118. Cinderella Teams
119. Classic NBA commercials
120. The cornrows creativity
Allen Iverson and his cornrows: pic.twitter.com/KOzHOJdC
— SI Vault (@si_vault) April 27, 2012
121. A long last name that can barely fit on the back of his jersey
Happy 22nd to Giannis Antetokounmpo—learn to spell his name, because you're gonna be typing it a lot. pic.twitter.com/Ldq3SD1psj
— Russ Bengtson (@russbengtson) December 6, 2016
122. The ABA
123. Harlem Globetrotters
124. H-O-R-S-E
125. Short shorts
-- Follow Jeff Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband. Like Jeff Eisenband on Facebook.
