Breakaway rim - wikipedia Breakaway rim Dwight Howard bends down the rim as he dunks the ball. A breakaway rim is a basketball rim that contains a hinge and a spring at the point where it attaches to the backboard so that it can bend downward when a player dunks a basketball, and then quickly snaps back into a horizontal position when the player releases it. It allows players to dunk the ball without shattering the backboard, and it reduces the possibility of wrist injuries. Breakaway rims were invented in the mid-1970s and are now an essential element of high - level basketball. In the early days of basketball, dunking was considered ungentlemanly, and was rarely used outside of practice or warm - up drills. A broken backboard or distorted rim could delay a game for hours. During the 1970s, however, players like Julius Erving and David Thompson of the American Basketball Association popularized the dunk with their athletic flights to the basket, increasing the demand for flexible rims. While several men claim to have created the breakaway rim, Arthur Ehrat is recognized as the inventor by the Smithsonian Institution 's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention & Innovation. A resident of Lowder, Illinois, Ehrat worked at a grain elevator for most of his life and barely knew anything about basketball. In 1975, his nephew, an assistant basketball coach at Saint Louis University, asked him to help design a rim that could support slam dunks. Using a spring from a John Deere cultivator, Ehrat designed a rim that could bend and spring back after 125 pounds of force were applied to it. He called his device `` The Rebounder ''. In 1982, he was awarded a patent for his invention, which was officially called a `` deformation - preventing swingable mount for basketball goals ''. The breakaway rim was first used by the NCAA during the 1978 Final Four in St. Louis. Although Darryl Dawkins notoriously shattered two backboards with his dunks in 1979, the old - style bolted rim structure was not phased out of the NBA until the 1981 -- 82 season, when breakaway rims debuted as a uniform equipment upgrade. References ^ Jump up to : John Keilman. `` This gadget really was a slam - dunk ; In 1976, Arthur Ehrat invented a basketball rim that did n't break wrists or backboards ''. Chicago Tribune. April 4, 2005. 1. Jump up ^ Arthur Ehrat Papers Archived 2008 - 07 - 20 at the Wayback Machine... Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention & Innovation. May 14, 2007. Retrieved on January 9, 2009. ^ Jump up to : Luke Winn. `` Breaking Away ''. SI.com. December 23, 2007. Retrieved on January 9, 2009. Jump up ^ Chris Broussard. `` A Game Played Above the Rim, Above All Else ''. New York Times. February 15, 2004. Retrieved on January 9, 2009. Basketball ( outline ) General topics History of basketball James Naismith Variations of basketball Leagues Statistics Glossary of terms Index of articles Rules Bonus Jump ball Officials Turnover Violation 3 seconds Offense Defense 5 seconds Basket interference Carrying Double dribble Goaltending Shot clock Traveling Foul Flagrant Personal Technical Game play Air ball Alley - oop Assist Backboard shattering Ball hog Block Buzzer beater Cherry picking Dribble Crossover Dunk Euro step Fadeaway Fast break Fly Flop Jump shot Layup Finger roll Field goal Four - point play Free throw Hook shot Moves Pick and roll Positions Posterized Playbook Rebound Point Screen Back screen Slashing Steal Three - pointer Three - point play Uncontested shot Strategy General Sixth man Offense Continuity offense Flex Shuffle UCLA High Post Wheel Dribble drive motion Four corners Motion Princeton Run and gun Grinnell System Nellie Ball Small ball Triangle Defense 1 - 2 - 1 - 1 1 -- 3 -- 1 2 -- 3 zone Amoeba Box - and - one Double team Full - court press Hack - a-Shaq Jordan Rules Line Man - to - man Match - up zone Triangle - and - two Zone Equipment Backboard Ball Breakaway rim Court Half court Key Net Possession arrow Whistle Clothing Basketball sleeve Finger sleeve Air Jordan Chuck Taylor All - Stars Miscellanous 100 - point scorers 50 -- 40 -- 90 club AAU All - Americans AAU champions Mikan Drill Player tracking Shootaround Tip drill Winning streaks Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Breakaway_rim&oldid=792186038 '' Categories : American inventions Basketball equipment Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links Talk About Wikipedia Bosanski Français Polski Српски / srpski Edit links This page was last edited on 25 July 2017, at 00 : 30. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: when did the nba start using breakaway rims
Answer: 1981–82 season