The First Basketball Game

The first unofficial game was played on the day that Naismith invented the game between 2 teams of 9 players using a soccer ball and 2 peach baskets. One of his students proposed they name the game "Naismith Game" , but he suggested "We have a ball and a basket: why don’t we call it basketball?"
The eighteen players that played in this game were; John G. Thompson, Eugene S. Libby, Edwin P. Ruggles, William R. Chase, T. Duncan Patton, Frank Mahan, Finlay G. MacDonald, William H. Davis and Lyman Archibald, who defeated George Weller, Wilbert Carey, Ernest Hildner, Raymond Kaighn, Genzabaro Ishikawa, Benjamin S. French, Franklin Barnes, George Day and Henry Gelan. The final score of the game was 1-0, with the only point being scored by William Chase.

                                           The building in which the first game was played



The first ever officially sanctioned basketball game was played in the gym at the YMCA in Albany, New York on January 20 1892, between 2 teams of 9 players. The final score of this game was also 
1-0 and it was played on a court about half the size of a modern NBA court. It was not until 1897 that teams of 5 became standard.