It seems unlikely that James Naismith, who grew up playing Duck on the Rock in the rural community of Almonte, Canada, would invent one of Americas most popular sports. But Rob Rains and Hellen Carpenters fascinating, in-depth biography James Naismith The Man Who Invented Basketball shows how this young man--who wanted to be a medical doctor, or if not that, a minister in fact, he was both--came to create a game that has endured for over a century. James Naismith reveals how Naismith invented basketball in part to find an indoor activity to occupy students in the winter months. When he realized that the key to his game was that men could not run with the ball, and that throwing and jumping would eliminate the roughness of force, he was on to something.
