AHC: Basketball the most popular sport in the world.

Like the title says, with a POD after 1910, but before 2010, make the sport of basketball the most popular in the world, far surpassing that of association football (soccer) in OTL. ;)
 

Tovarich

Banned
Afraid I don't know much about basketball, Laq', but I'm pretty sure that POD date is going to be way too late.

The only positive suggestion I can make is: As basketball is an indoor game, could any building techniques have been developed earlier, to let indoor arenas compete with football stadiums for crowd capacity?

If not, game over, I'm afraid.
 
It's an indoor game and this game is more suitable to those who have more than 5 feet and 8 inches and above. It's difficult to built an improvised basketball court than an improvised football court.
 
Increased American imperialism, not of the soft kind.

There's a reason basketball is king here despite us lacking the height.
 
Increased American imperialism, not of the soft kind.

That could be but the problem is that Basketball is more difficult to make a particular team than say Football. Image a team with 12 players including the bench without 6 footer. They could compete in small league competitions let say in a village but in National, International or especially in the NBA, teams without reliable frontcourt or even backcourt is doomed to fail.

There's a reason basketball is king here despite us lacking the height.

I presume that you are Filipino and I'm Filipino. While I'm agree that Basketball is a king (I'm presumed that you are living in the Philippines) but I tell you that for almost 40 years, Philippines never qualifies to play in the Olympics not because the government lacks support but because the Filipino's height is not suitable or competitive in Basketball tournament in a long-run to compete the US, China, Argentina, Iran, Australia, Italy and Spain and Olympic Games is fast-paced game. In the NBA, no Filipino-born had ever played because of lack of 6 footers or 7 footers in the Philippines.
 
It's an indoor game and this game is more suitable to those who have more than 5 feet and 8 inches and above. It's difficult to built an improvised basketball court than an improvised football court.

Football (soccer) is a poor people sport...

You can play football on every flat surfaces and you can play with every available ball.

In primary school, for child between 5 and 10 years old, we played with tennis ball. It was easy to have in our pockets to go out and play during breaks...

Outside of school, I played with a volley ball. A good one in leather... Plastic ball were awful...
 
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What? It's NOT the most popular sport in the world? INCONCEIVABLE!!! :eek: :D

Seriously, basketball as-is will never match football as is already mentioned. A few changes (significant ones) might make something similar to basketball competitive:
  • Keep raising the rim to make it a pure shooting game. Nobody's dunking on a fifteen-foot rim.
  • Widen the court a little more to reduce the effect of tall shot-blocking defenders - might have to modify the ball a little to take advantage of the extra shooting room.
  • Allow a player to pass from hand to hand as an alternative to dribbling - again, probably need to modify the ball (smaller, and maybe give away some of the bounce for some extra grab).
  • Maybe offer an alternate goal for "short people" - pass the ball through two hoops four feet off the ground, no backboard, for a single point.
 
It's an indoor game and this game is more suitable to those who have more than 5 feet and 8 inches and above. It's difficult to built an improvised basketball court than an improvised football court.

Only in respect to getting a level enough place where the ball can bounce. Otherwise, it just requires a ball and a couple of baskets, or hopes (like football just requires a ball and two places to denote goals).
 
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