The Origin of the Basketball Net
Basketball is one of the best team-based cardio sports available today. It is popular due to the relative inexpensive setup costs for the people who choose to play it. Basketball can be played with just a basketball and a basketball net. This has led to basketball becoming a truly international sport.
Ever since Doctor James Naismith invented basketball in 1891, basketball has undergone many changes in terms of the rules that govern it, as well as the equipment used. The first basketball nets were actually peach baskets. This type of primitive basketball net was immediately improved upon by cutting the bottom out of the basket so that the ball could be popped out with a stick after a made basket. The delay for the time it took to climb up and retrieve the ball out of the basket made it very hard for a game to develop any sort of flow. Using the stick to poke the ball out made it much quicker and helped to significantly improve the speed of the game.
The Evolution of the Basketball Net
The basketball net has undergone many changes since the days of the peach baskets. The peach baskets were eventually replaced by a metal hoop. The metal hoop enhanced the speed of the game, but introduced new issues of telling whether the ball actually went through the hoop. The metal hoop offered no resistance unless the ball hit the sides of the hoop.
This issue was eventually solved by attaching a net below the metal hoop that would make it more obvious when the ball went through the hoop. This net was woven in a mesh design in order to make it:
Due to the specific way it is woven, a basketball net is often called a "mesh”. The materials commonly used to manufacture these basketball nets today are:
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Nylon
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Steel
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Polyester blend
Nylon is soft while also being somewhat durable when it is at thicker densities. Thicker nylon basketball nets typically cost much more, but need to be replaced less often. Nylon is susceptible to wear down quickly when it is used outside and it is exposed to the elements so it is predominantly used indoors. Steel and polyester are used mostly for outdoor nets. Steel lasts the longest but is generally the most expensive and is prone to rusting.
Nylon also produces that "swish” noise that basketball players love to hear when the ball goes cleanly through the net. Nylon makes this unmistakable noise while also minimizing the resistance for the ball to travel through. This results in less occurrences of the ball getting stuck in the mesh of the net.
The Choice of the Pros
Nylon nets are the most popular types of basketball nets and they are available in many different qualities and thicknesses. Generally every type of organized basketball from high school all the way to the professional levels uses nylon basketball nets. Steel basketball nets are commonly associated with playground courts and street ball. Nylon nets can symbolize tradition and the thicker nylon nets are usually present at higher levels of competition as a symbol of status.