Basketball was invented by Dr. James Naismith in December 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He created the game as a less injury-prone indoor sport to keep athletes active during the winter. The first game was played on December 21, 1891, using a soccer ball and two peach baskets nailed to the gym balcony at a height of 10 feet. Naismith published 13 original rules for the game and organized two teams of nine players each. The objective was to throw the ball into the basket to score points. Initially, the bottoms of the peach baskets were closed, so the ball had to be retrieved manually after each score, until the bottoms were later removed. The game rapidly became popular and evolved over the following years into the modern sport of basketball.