In 1891 in Springfield, Masschusetts, Dr. James Naismith nailed a peach basket ten feet from the ground, creating the sport of basketball.
Shortly after, in a move considered vastly out of character, the Canadian-born Naismith did not remain in the United States. He did not help promote and refine his sport through YMCA organisations throughout the country.
Instead, he self-diagnosed himself with yellow fever and travelled to Japan for health reasons. He brought with him his peach basket, creating the sport of basuketoboru.
In the United States, basketball gradually became widespread through drawcard players like Wilt Chamberlain, whose debut is now considered to have ushered in the Golden Age of basketball. Despite this, it was still considered less a sport than a game, played for entertainment at social gatherings rather than competitively. It was primarily played by children and teenagers, who moved onto more respected sports when they became of mature age. The stigma of basketball being a diversion for children rather than a sport of actual athletic merit continues even today.
In Japan, basuketoboru developed along similar lines until the postwar era, when a ban was lifted on non-state approved sports. After borrowing techniques from other sports and from basketball, basuketoboru exploded in popularity. Its following became larger and more diverse than basketball, spawning correspondingly diverse playing styles and techniques, such as the full court decompress. Although still primarily played by children and teens, it garnered some respect as a legitimate sport, as signified by its inclusion into the Olympics.
The Olympics standardised the rules between basketball and basuketoboru, but there were still major variations in the way it was played in either country. The uniforms worn in the U.S. were flamboyantly coloured spandex, whilst the Japanese basuketoboru uniforms were typically monochromatic, using high contrast to distinguish home and away. In basketball, the timer for each quarter would count down from 12 minutes, whilst basuketoboru's timer counted up to 12 minutes. Fans of one were unaccustomed to the other, calling it 'backwards'.
As time went on, it was in the United States that the first cracks begun to appear in the status quo. There were many of course, loyal to basketball since childhood. But from there the sport fractured into many subgroups.
Some grew weary of trying to change people's perceptions of basketball as a children's game. They split off from other leagues and formed their own. They also announced that although they were still playing basketball, their sport was no longer called basketball. It would now be called basket-based athletics.
Still other Americans agreed with the perception, and shunned basketball entirely. They begun to follow basuketoboru exclusively, and it fast gained its own niche. As some understood it, basuketoboru was not merely basketball but the way the Japanese played it. In short order, American basketoboru fans grew up wanting to be players. And riding the wave of popularity, the same local companies who broadcast basuketoboru from Japan to American fans sponsored the creation of a professional domestic league.
The debut was disappointing and universally panned. The standard of play was amateurish, perhaps college-level at the most for some teams. But nowhere near professional, and nowhere near Japan. Worse still, it exposed another fracture and yet another subgroup. The purists. As they understood it, basuketoboru was not merely basketball, and not merely the way the Japanese played it, it was basketball as played by Japanese people. They saw the domestic league as a cheap imitation, missing the point of basuketoboru entirely. It was just basketball in black and white uniforms with the clocks counting up.
American basuketoboru was an oxymoron, an impossibility. They called it 'wasuketoboru'. The term took off.
For years the league struggled. Their matches were poorly attended and those that were there were mostly aspiring players themselves. The purists had no such aspirations, and vindicated, waited with glee for it to die.