48 Fun Facts About Basketball Trivia for Kids

What starts a basketball game?

A jump ball starts the game, and in the NBA the team that loses that opening tip gets the ball to begin the second and third quarters.

What follows an NBA player's sixth personal foul?

Disqualification follows, but an NBA team can't drop below five players, so with no eligible sub left the player stays in and the team is charged a technical foul.

Who invented basketball?

James Naismith was asked to invent an indoor game to keep students active through the winter, and in December 1891 he wrote 13 rules for it.

What did the very first basketball hoops actually look like?

The inventor nailed two peach baskets to the gym balcony; they kept their bottoms at first, so someone had to fish the ball out after every score.

In which country was basketball's inventor born?

Canada is where basketball's inventor was born, in Almonte, Ontario; he later told his student Phog Allen the game needed no coach, and Allen became the father of basketball coaching.

In basketball, what is it called when a player bounces the ball while moving?

Dribbling ends once a player touches the ball with both hands, and starting to dribble again is a double dribble, which hands the ball to the other team.

What is a 'rebound' in basketball?

Grabbing a missed shot is a rebound: a defender's rebound wins the ball for his team, while an offensive rebound gives the shooting team another chance to score.

In basketball, what is it called when a player runs with the ball without bouncing it?

Traveling is called when a player holding the ball takes too many steps or moves the pivot foot, and the other team gets the ball.

What is a slam dunk?

Jamming the ball into the hoop is a slam dunk; college basketball banned dunking in 1967, a rule many tied to the dominance of Lew Alcindor, later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Which NBA team was based outside the US in 2024-25?

The Raptors joined the NBA in 1995 alongside the Vancouver Grizzlies, but the Grizzlies moved to Memphis in 2001, leaving Toronto's Raptors as the league's only team outside the US.

Which arena is home to the NBA's New York Knicks?

Madison Square Garden is the Knicks' home; the name Knicks comes from Knickerbockers, a pen name Washington Irving used that later meant descendants of New York's Dutch settlers.

Which team had won the most NBA championships, 18, by the end of the 2024-25 season?

The Boston Celtics traded Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan to St. Louis in 1956 for the draft rights to Bill Russell, who went on to win 11 titles with Boston.

Which team did Michael Jordan win six championships with?

The Chicago Bulls won three straight titles before Jordan quit in 1993 to play minor-league baseball; after he came back in 1995, they won three more in a row.

In the movie Space Jam, Michael Jordan plays basketball with which cartoon characters?

The Looney Tunes need Michael Jordan in Space Jam (1996) because the aliens they must beat in a basketball game have stolen the talent of NBA players.

Which shoe company makes Michael Jordan's famous sneaker line?

Nike built its Jumpman logo from a photo inspired by a 1984 magazine shot of Jordan leaping in a ballet-style pose; that photographer sued Nike over it and lost.

Which team picked LeBron James first in the 2003 draft, straight out of high school?

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost LeBron James to the Miami Heat in 2010, but he came back in 2014 and led them to their first NBA title in 2016.

Which team drafted Stephen Curry seventh overall in 2009?

The Golden State Warriors got Stephen Curry at No. 7 after the Minnesota Timberwolves used the two picks just before, 5 and 6, on Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn.

What was Kobe Bryant's nickname?

The Black Mamba was a nickname Kobe Bryant gave himself, and he later named his 2018 book about how he played The Mamba Mentality.

Kobe Bryant won an Academy Award for what kind of film?

An animated short, Dear Basketball, won Kobe Bryant his Oscar; it grew from the poem he wrote in 2015 to announce he would retire.

Which skill was Shaquille O'Neal famously poor at?

Free throws were Shaquille O'Neal's weak spot, so opponents fouled him on purpose, a tactic nicknamed Hack-a-Shaq.

Which team drafted Shaquille O'Neal first overall in 1992?

The Orlando Magic reached the 1995 Finals with Shaquille O'Neal, but Houston swept them, and in 1996 he left to join Los Angeles.

Which WNBA team drafted Caitlin Clark first overall in 2024?

The Indiana Fever drafted Caitlin Clark after she chose to turn pro instead of using the extra college season she had been granted because of COVID-19.

Which college did Caitlin Clark star for?

Iowa is where Caitlin Clark became the top scorer in NCAA Division I history, yet the Hawkeyes lost the national title game in both 2023 and 2024.

What is Giannis Antetokounmpo's nickname?

The Greek Freak, Giannis Antetokounmpo, grew up in Athens selling sunglasses and watches on the streets to help his immigrant parents, who struggled to find work.

Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-plus star picked first in 2023, comes from which country?

France is Victor Wembanyama's home country; he led the French team to the 2024 Olympic final in Paris, where it lost to the United States and took silver.

Which team drafted Victor Wembanyama?

The San Antonio Spurs won the 2023 draft lottery and took Victor Wembanyama, while the Detroit Pistons, the NBA's worst team that season, dropped to the fifth pick.

Which famous team plays funny trick-shot exhibition games and usually beats the Washington Generals?

The Harlem Globetrotters play real games, and in 1971 they lost to the Generals, then playing as the New Jersey Reds, on a last-second shot.

What is the whistled theme song of basketball's famous trick-shot exhibition team?

Sweet Georgia Brown was a 1925 song, and Brother Bones's whistled 1949 version became famous once the trick-shot team adopted it as its anthem.

What is the nickname of the big college basketball tournament held every spring?

March Madness was a name the NCAA used only for the men's tournament until 2022, when a gender equity review led it to extend the name to the women's tournament too.

Which college has won the most men's NCAA tournament titles?

UCLA won 10 of its titles under coach John Wooden, whose teams won 88 games in a row until Notre Dame beat them 71-70 in 1974.

What was the nickname of the 1992 US Olympic basketball team starring Michael Jordan?

The Dream Team came together after FIBA voted in 1989 to let professional players into the Olympics, and it won its games by almost 44 points on average.

Who made the WNBA's first dunk?

Lisa Leslie made the WNBA's first dunk in 2002; in high school she once scored 101 points in one half, and the other team refused to play the second half.

Where did the Lakers play before moving to Los Angeles?

Minneapolis is where the team took the name Lakers, after Minnesota's nickname, the Land of 10,000 Lakes, and it kept that name after moving to Los Angeles in 1960.

Why were backboards first added behind basketball hoops?

To stop fans knocking shots away, hoops got backboards, but fans seated behind them then complained the boards blocked their view, which led to glass ones.

Who coached Michael Jordan's six NBA championship teams?

Phil Jackson ran his teams with ideas drawn from Eastern philosophy and Native American traditions, and he later won five more titles with the Lakers.

Yao Ming, the 7-foot-6 center who played for the Houston Rockets, came from which country?

China's Yao Ming retired in 2011 after a run of foot and ankle injuries, and in 2017 he took charge of the Chinese Basketball Association.

Muggsy Bogues, the NBA's shortest player ever, spent most of his career with which team?

Charlotte Hornets kept the 5-foot-3 guard for ten seasons, and he once blocked 7-foot Patrick Ewing.

Who is the only player to score 100 points in one NBA game?

Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game in 1962 was not televised, so no video exists; only an audio recording of its fourth quarter survives, now in the National Recording Registry.

Which shot was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar famous for?

The skyhook was released so high over defenders' hands that they could hardly reach it, and it helped Kareem Abdul-Jabbar retire as the NBA's all-time leading scorer.

What was the nickname of the Los Angeles Lakers' fast, flashy 1980s teams?

Showtime was owner Jerry Buss's plan to make games a show: he hired a live band, created the Laker Girls dancers and drew Hollywood stars like Jack Nicholson to courtside seats.

Which team picked Serbian star Nikola Jokić 41st in the 2014 draft?

The Denver Nuggets took Nikola Jokić 41st in 2014, a pick famously announced during a Taco Bell commercial break; he led them to the 2023 title and was Finals MVP.

Which country does Luka Dončić come from?

Slovenia is Luka Dončić's home country; he led the Dallas Mavericks to the 2024 NBA Finals, yet in February 2025 Dallas traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Which WNBA great won six Olympic gold medals?

Diana Taurasi sat out the 2015 WNBA season because her Russian club, UMMC Ekaterinburg, paid her more than her WNBA salary to rest.

Sue Bird spent her entire WNBA career with which team?

The Seattle Storm won four titles with Sue Bird, and after another knee surgery kept her out in 2019, she came back to help them win the 2020 title.

Angel Reese, the 'Bayou Barbie', led which college to a national championship?

LSU landed Angel Reese when she transferred from Maryland after two seasons, and in 2023 she led the Tigers to their first national championship.

Which company became the maker of the official NBA game ball again in 2021?

Wilson returned as the NBA's ball maker in 2021, replacing Spalding, whose synthetic ball of 2006 was dropped within months after players complained it scraped their hands.

In which US state was basketball invented in 1891?

Massachusetts is where basketball began, in Springfield in 1891, and word spread so fast that the rules were printed in the school's magazine and mailed to YMCAs.

What kind of ball was used when basketball was first played in 1891?

A soccer ball was used in the first games, but the game's inventor left out the rough contact of soccer, football and rugby, which threatened bruises and broken bones indoors.