Naismith's handwritten diaries, discovered by his granddaughter in original 2006, indicate that he was afraid about the dissimilar game he had invented, which incorporated rules from a children's game called "Duck on a Rock", as many had failed before it. Naismith called the new bold 'Basket Ball'.

Teams abounded throughout the 1920s. There were hundreds of men's professional basketball teams in towns and cities all over the United States and little construction of the professional game. Players jumped from team to team and teams played in Basketball Training armories and smoky dance halls. Leagues came and went. And barnstorming squads such as the Original Celtics and two all African American teams, the Neoteric York Renaissance Five ("Rens") and (still in breath as of 2008) the Harlem Globetrotters played up to two hundred challenger a session on their national tours.