What's the official height of an NBA rim?
The basket rim height has always been set at 10 feet.James Naismith, a Canadian, invented a game called "basket ball" as part of a Young Men's Christian Association training class assignment and drafted a brief set of rules for the game.The basket rim height was set at 10 feet in the original 13 rules for the game, which was upheld by the National Basketball Association 125 years later.
The popularity of basketball eventually spurred the creation of over 100 rules and a host of changes to the courts, number of players and the size and style of both baskets and balls.The entire history of the game has not been changed by the rule of rim height.The railing on the first basketball court at Springfield Teachers' College was 10 feet in height when the original peach baskets were hung.The 10-foot standard became an important part of the game.
When basketball players' average height hit 6 feet 7 inches, those in favor of raising the rim height seemed to have stronger support than ever.In basketball, the tallest men in the world were often drafted onto teams.A 7-foot male has a 17 percent chance of playing in the NBA if he is tall.The shorter players were left with a disadvantage due to the increasing average player height.
The 2008 NBA all-star slam dunk competition became a battleground for the rim-height debate when 6-foot-11 player Dwight Howard challenged NBA officials to consider raising his rim to 12 feet for his dunk.Rudy Gay and Gerald Green agreed to meet Howard's challenge, with Green even suggesting the rim height be raised to 13 feet.NBA officials insisted that NBA standards remain level across the sport, despite the fact that the rim was left at 10 feet.Howard successfully completed a 12-foot two-handed dunk in the all-star dunk competition after officials agreed to raise the rim.