History of the NBA
The NBA was founded in 1991 and has grown to become one of the largest youth basketball programs in eastern Massachusetts. The NBA has evolved consistently from the initial 160 players that first year to approximately 750 players today. It's particularly noteworthy that in our first year there were 16 girls participating in coed teams. The NBA began a girls division in 1993 and today there are 300+ girls participating. Since our inception, we have had approximately 7500 children play in the program and we are now firmly entrenched in the Needham community. In addition, we have had a number of female athletes move on to excell both in the classroom and on the basketball court at the college level.
The NBA was founded as a 501C corporation run by a Board of Directors and a suite of Officers and is not affiliated with any other local or national basketball program. As part of our philanthropic endeavors, in 2001 the NBA established substantial boys and girls scholarship that are awarded annually based on academic achievements of former players who participated in basketball at the high school level and matriculated on to college. Aside from the NBA scholarships, we actively support a variety of local youth basketball and non-basketball sports programs. In addition, the NBA has made financial contributions to numerous Needham school athletic programs and fund raising initiatives.
Since our inception our unique program was designed to begin very slowly each year, with progressive and more stringent enforcement of basketball rules and skills throughout the course of the year, particularly at the younger level. We do not punish mistakes, we simply focus on how to do things right. Traditionally, during games, our game manager (not a referee) stops the action, explains what happened and actively demonstrates the proper technique, or explains the rules so that children know what is expected of them. This approach is unique to the NBA.
Our season culminates in our hugely successful March Madness tournament which has evolved to become our annual showcase event where children get to demonstrate their mastery of what they have learned during the course of the year in front of hundreds of fans armed with cameras. It's not unusual to see numerous former players, coaches, and parents show up at tournament time to check out the action, or help manage games.
We look forward to creating more history with the Needham community.