Basketball has been under fire a lot lately. Is LeBron the GOAT? Did the 3pt shot ruin basketball? Is tanking ruining the NBA? Were the 90s better? Magic City Madness! So many conversations, critiques, and issues about the game I love, that I thought I’d shed some light on the whole reason the game exists in the first place. It all came from the creative brain of a Presbyterian minister.

"Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair."

Nelson Mandela said this about what sports can do. I don’t know a better sport that this applies to than basketball. The game is played around the world, boasts some of sports’ all-time great athletes, and is a multi-billion dollar entity. But that’s not how it started. Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian PE teacher, had a problem, two to be exact, one personal and one professional. Naismith was a believer in Jesus Christ and went on to seminary, but his passion was sports. At that time, sports were viewed as a negative to the church, but Naismith had experienced what sports could do. He was a great athlete himself, playing multiple sports, and he knew the power it held. He dreamed of combining sports and his faith. He was convinced he could better exemplify the Christian life through sports than in the pulpit. Initially, his family was not on board as a traditional Presbyterian family. But that didn’t stop him, which leads to his next problem.

After his schooling in 1891, he would end up in Springfield, Massachusetts, teaching PE at the YMCA International Training School. When the winters became too harsh for outside play, the school would have bored, uninterested, and rowdy youths on their hands, trapped indoors. Naismith was given 14 days to devise a game that would help keep the young men’s stamina up throughout the winter and could be played indoors. A second requirement was a game that wasn’t as rough as football, lacrosse, soccer, or rugby, to avoid injuries and fights. This was his chance, his opportunity to create something the world had never seen before. To help him out, his boss, Dr. Luther Gulick, alluded to this Bible verse from Ecclesiastes.

What has been is what will be,

and what has been done is what will be done,

and there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

Gulick told Naismith that new things are just combinations of the factors of things that already exist. Naismith took this and ran with it, and in December 1891, the game of “Basket Ball” was born. Naismith’s dream of showing Christ-like values and using sport as a tool to minister to young people came true. The game was a hit with the boys of the school, and the rest is history. Later on in life, Naismith would look back on his creation:

“Whenever I witness games in a church league, I feel that my vision, almost half a century ago, of the time when the Christian people would recognize the true value of athletics, has become a reality.”

I feel a certain kinship with Naismith. You could say his vision and faith are the reason I’m doing this very thing. A man bold enough in his gifts and his faith to use his passion to honor God. His goal was to show people Christ, not just tell them. The Apostle Paul penned a letter that speaks to this effort.

“I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” (1 Corinthians 9:22-23)

Paul changed his approach to reach different audiences. Naismith did the same. He moved from the pulpit to the gym. Basketball was his language to reach them. Despite all the issues we currently have with basketball and the NBA, what’s holding it up at its foundation is a man’s belief in God through sport.