Celebrating Basketball With The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Coins

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The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Silver Dollar, one of several commemorative coins the United States Mint struck in 2020 honoring the sport and the man who invented it.

By Joshua McMorrow-Hernandez - November 6, 2024
Original link: https://www.pcgs.com/news/celebrating-basketball-with-the-naismith-memorial-basketball-hall-of-fame-coins

Did you know November 6 is National Basketball Day in the United States? It’s a day not chosen at random. In fact, November 6 is a very important date not just for the history of basketball but the very existence of the sport. That’s because it was on November 6, 1861, that James Naismith was born. If the name is sort of ringing a bell but you’re not sure why, let’s just hoop up the score right here and now. Naismith invented the game of basketball in 1891.

Naismith devised the sport originally known as “Basket Ball” at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. The game took off, and over the next generations the sport became an international sensation. It’s also one of the most accessible sports overall – thousands of basketball courts are found all around the country. Many basketball courts are totally accessible to the public free of charge and require just the possession of a basketball and knowledge of how the game is played.

By the time Naismith died in 1939 at the age of 78, his sport had become a staple in colleges and universities around the United States and beyond. He had lived long enough to even see basketball become an official Olympic sport beginning in 1936. While the National Basketball Association – a professional-level organization widely known as “the NBA” – didn’t tip-off until 1949, a decade after Naismith’s death, the inventor of the game was a pioneer in every sense in fostering the sport at the collegiate level, where it thrives today.

Honored in a multitude of ways, Naismith and his legacy live on today on the court and beyond. Naismith was recognized as a National Historic Person in Canada, where he was born. Canada and the United States honored the centennial of basketball in 1991 with postage stamps honoring Naismith and his internationally popular brainchild. And Naismith has been the subject of innumerable awards, documentaries, and other esteemed honors. His name is also enshrined on the sport’s hall of fame, located in Springfield, Massachusetts, the city where Naismith invented the game so long ago.

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was established in 1959, with the facility opening in 1968. In 2020, the United States Mint honored the sport with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame 60th Anniversary commemorative coins, which include a clad half dollar, silver dollar, and $5 gold coin. Soon after the coins were released, PCGS encapsulated these coins with an exclusive label, and these coins – as well as PCGS-graded examples with the special label – remain popular collectibles today.

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想起和小伙伴逃课去看NBA的日子。