Even after the restriction was removed at both universities and high schools, dunking was still not permitted during pregame warm-ups. The NCAA switched direction last year and began allowing athletes to dunk during warm-ups. Nonetheless, it is still a no-no in high school basketball. Violators are still penalized with a technical foul. The first player to really make an impact in the NBA by completely changing the game with his play was Dr. James Naismith, who invented basketball in 1891. Before Naismith came along, players only had a stick for a weapon, which wasn't much use against opponents who could jump higher than them. So Naismith came up with the idea of giving players balls to play on instead of just sticks, which made the game more exciting and also less dangerous, since they weren't knives to fight over anymore. He also created rules that players had to wait until after the game to determine who would be the winner or loser, which eliminated all kind of cheating that might have happened before this rule was put in place. James Naismith died in 1939 at the age of 77. Today, basketball is one of the most popular sports in the United States, Canada, and many other countries around the world. There are several professional basketball leagues in the US alone, and the NBA is by far the most famous of them all.