Backboard

A Basketball net and hoop attached to a backboard.

Typical privately owned basketball hoop with backboard

A backboard is a piece of basketball equipment. It is a raised vertical board with a basket attached. It is made of a flat, rigid piece of material, often plexiglass. It is usually rectangular as used in NBA, NCAA and international basketball. But many backboards may be oval, particularly in non-professional games.

A basketball hoop is mounted to a basketball backboard via a flexible connection between the backboard and the connection supporting the hoop. The shock of a basket or a dunk is absorbed by the connecting part, so that the rim goes back to a horizontal position once again.

The backboard is very frequently used to rebound balls into the hoop. In contrast to basketball, beach basketball and netball use baskets that have no backboards.

The first glass backboard was used by the Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team at the Men's Gymnasium at Indiana University.^[1] After the first few games at their new facility in 1917, spectators complained that they couldn't see the game because of opaque wooden backboards. As a result the Nurre Mirror Plate Company in Bloomington was employed to create new backboards that contained one-and-a-half inch thick plate glass so that fans could see games without an obstructed view. As a result, it was the first facility in the country to use glass backboards.^[1]

Diagram of basketball backboard

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  The backboard and basket

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  NCAA backboard and basket (2008)

Layout prescribed by the rules of the International Basketball Federation, the National Basketball Association, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

References

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