Basketball is a game.
Basketball is a non-contact sport played on a rectangular court . The game was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith , who would be the first basketball coach of the Kansas Jayhawks , one of the most successful programs in the game 's history . The game has many individual techniques for displaying skill -- ball-handling , shooting , passing , dribbling , dunking , shot-blocking , and rebounding . A basketball is a spherical inflated ball used in basketball games .