Alright, let’s talk about them basketball hoops, the ones them fellas in the NBA be shootin’ at. You know, the tall ones.
Now, I ain’t no fancy engineer or nothin’, but I can tell ya, them hoops ain’t just slapped up there willy-nilly. They gotta be a certain height, see? It’s always the same, no matter if you’re watchin’ LeBron or some young’un in school.
They tell me, and I heard it from a fella who knows these things, that hoop’s gotta be ten feet off the ground. That’s ten of your regular ol’ feet, like the ones you walk on. Ten of ’em, stacked up on top of each other. That’s how high that rim is.
- Ten feet! That’s taller than my Jedediah, and he’s a big boy.
- And it ain’t just the NBA. Them women in the WNBA, they use the same height hoop too.
- Even the little kids, they be shootin’ at hoops that high, though sometimes they lower ’em for the real small ones.
This ten-foot thing, it ain’t new neither. This fella, Naismith, he’s the one who come up with this basketball game way back when. And he said, “Ten feet! That’s how high the hoop goes!” And that’s how it’s been ever since. He must’ve been a smart fella, that Naismith. Stuck to his guns, he did.
Now, you might be thinkin’, “Why ten feet?” Well, I ain’t rightly sure. Maybe it was just a good number that popped into his head. Maybe he figured it was high enough to be a challenge but not so high that nobody could reach it. Whatever the reason, it stuck. And now, all over the world, them basketball players be jumpin’ and shootin’ at hoops ten feet in the air.
Think about it, that’s pretty high up there. You gotta be tall and jump high to get that ball in there. Them NBA players, they’re like giants, some of ’em. Runnin’ and jumpin’ like nobody’s business. And that little ball, they gotta get it up there, ten whole feet. It ain’t easy, I tell ya.
I seen some games on the TV, and them fellas make it look easy, but I bet it ain’t. All that runnin’ and jumpin’, and then you gotta aim just right to get that ball through that hoop. And that hoop, it ain’t that big neither. Just a little metal ring, ten feet up in the air.
And it ain’t just about height, you know. You gotta be strong too. Gotta have good arms to throw that ball that far. And you gotta be quick, gotta be able to move around them other players. It’s a whole lot more than just bein’ tall, but bein’ tall sure does help get that ball up to that ten-foot hoop.
So, next time you see a basketball game, remember that hoop. Ten feet up. That’s the magic number. And them fellas, they’re jumpin’ and shootin’ at that ten-foot hoop, tryin’ to get that ball in. It’s a hard job, but somebody’s gotta do it. And it’s mighty entertainin’ to watch, even for an old woman like me. And that’s all there is to say about that ten foot hoop.
Now, where’s my tea?
Tags: [NBA, basketball, hoop height, regulation, James Naismith, WNBA, rim height, sports, rules, ten feet]
