The history of basketball began with its invention in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts by Canadian physical education instructor James Naismith as a less injury-prone sport than football. Naismith was a 31-year old graduate student when he created the indoor sport to keep athletes indoors during the winters.
The Lega Basket Serie A, officially abbreviated as LBA, is a professional men's club basketball league that has been organized in Italy since 1920. It constitutes the first and highest-tier level of the Italian league pyramid.
The NBA began life as the Basketball Association of America in 1946 and played under that moniker for 3 years before, in 1949, merging with the National Basketball League and changing names to the NBA. The BAA started out with 11 teams in 1946 but lost four of them before the start of the next season.
