Basketball was invented by a Canadian doctor named James Naismith, who was born in 1861. When he was at college, his teacher asked the class to think of a game that can by played in the winter.Dr. Naismith created a game to be played inside on a hard floor. Dr. Naismith divided the men in his class into two teams and taught them to play his new gam. The purpose of the game is for players to get a ball into the “basket”. Players on the same team must work together to help each other get the ball in the other team’s basket. At the same time, they need to stop the competing team from getting the ball into their own basket.