GWtW B2. Unit 6. Origins of Basketball (conditionals))

The Origins of Basketball

The world would be a sadder place for many people if basketball (a)   (not exist).

If you do some research into the origins of the sport, you (a)   (see) that it was the invention of one man.

That’s right. If it (a)   (not be) forJames Naismith (1861–1939), basketball would never have existed. Naismith was a Canadian PE teacher who worked in the US.

If Naismith (a)   (have) a different profession, I imagine he wouldn’t have thought up this new sport. His director gave him 14 days to create a new indoor sport.

It had to be indoors because the weather was bad in the winter where they lived. Of course, if you play indoors, you (a)   (not get) cold or wet.

The director also wanted the sport to be non-aggressive. If he hadn’t told Naismith this, perhaps Naismith (a)   (not make) basketball a non-contact sport.

Naismith’s original baskets were wooden fruit baskets which didn’t have a hole. If we (a)   (have) the same baskets today, we would need a ladder to get the ball back every time a player scored!

If basketball hadn’t become so popular, maybe people (a)   (forget) about James Naismith a long time ago. But it’s thanks to him that one of the world’s most popular sports exists.