It would be best not to complain about how basketball got its name, it could have easily been called “box ball” or even “trash can ball.”
In 1891, when James Naismith was inventing the game for bored, snowbound students at a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, he intended to use wooden boxes for his targets.
But when he asked the custodian for boxes, there were none in any of the club’s back rooms, so he ended up with two old peach baskets.
Naismith nailed them on the balconies at either end of the gym, which happened to be 10 feet off the floor, which is why the game was first called “basket ball” and why 10 feet is the regulation height for baskets.
When it became clear that the thin wood baskets weren’t going to hold up for long, Naismith substituted wire trash cans, and then eventually the hoop and netting combination used today.
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