Basketball and Peach Baskets: A Story of Evolution and Tradition

The game of basketball was invented by a physical education teacher named James Naismith as a way to keep students fit during the cold winter months in northern USA. Naismith was a teacher in Springfield, the birthplace of Dr. Seuss, and a town that exists in almost every state in the USA and in various TV series (like The Simpsons).

Much has changed since the early days of the game. Initially, each team had nine players, dribbling was not allowed, and fouls and penalties have evolved to make the game more exciting to watch. The first hoops were peach baskets, and after each rare score, someone had to climb a ladder to retrieve the ball until Naismith agreed to remove the basket bottoms.

However, the height of the hoop has never changed.

Naismith set the hoop height completely randomly by attaching a peach basket to a 10-foot track railing in 1891. This height, three meters and five centimeters, remains the standard for basketball hoops worldwide.

To give you some perspective, the average height of an NBA player in 1947 was 1.89 meters, compared to 2.05 meters today. Add to this better equipment, nutrition, training, and diversity (most players in 1947 were white and not professional), and we see that the game, at least in terms of hoop height, has become easier. Still, just like the side of the bed you sleep on with your partner, the hoop height was set randomly and remains unchanged.

It’s good to stop once in a while to reevaluate our beliefs.

One of my favorite organizational consulting stories involves a consultant who visits the artillery corps and discovers someone whose job is to crouch while holding an imaginary rope. Why? Because in the past, horses would bring the cannons to the battlefield, and someone had to hold the horses to keep them calm. The horses are gone, but the role remained because no one thought to question its necessity.

Blockbuster, Nokia, and Kodak are famous examples of organizations that failed to change in time, finding themselves in crisis when it was too late. The saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” does not apply to our current world. If anything, break it yourself before someone else does.

So why don’t we change the hoop height? Could it be that Naismith’s arbitrary decision was exceptionally accurate?

Initially, I thought the reason was that the hoop height is a physical component of the game, not just a rule. But court dimensions, free-throw distances, the invention of the three-point line, and even the ball itself have all changed over the last 130 years. Changing the hoop height would be like telling organizations to start working standing up instead of at a desk, or more extreme, to work from home or anywhere else.

Here’s my bet — the hoop height won’t change anytime soon. And if it does, it will be due to a deep crisis, like a global pandemic.

But hey, what are the chances of that happening again?

“Change is not mandatory. Survival is not compulsory.” — W. Edwards Deming