Early Basketball Rim and Net
Basketball rim and net | Ca. 1900 Iron, cotton twine
Early iron basketball rims like this one from circa 1900 measured 19 inches in diameter, a full inch wider than the current official NBA rim dimension. Can you calculate how many more square inches of “splash” area there were back then, compared to today?
Then again, the basketball was a little bit bigger as well.
Note that the rim was fastened to the backboard by just two bolts, but the distance from the backboard to the rim is still the same today as it was back then.
(Black Fives Foundation Archives)
