ELI5 Basketball - why is there a backboard?

Why do they switch out the basketball net frequently in the NBA? What was Tim Duncan doing before he got into basketball? How and why did backboards become part of basketball? What’s behind the color convention of home and away jerseys? What is the most accurate free throw tecnique? Why is the Lithuanian team of 1992 called ‘the other dream’? ... we explain like I'm five Thank you to the r/explainlikeimfive community and in particular the following users whose questions and comments formed the basis of this discussion: howmuchbanana, a trumpster, neugo, munot, vernvernsipsip, atlasairborne, marco19, lakefargo and waveofpbr. To the ELI5 community that has supported us so far, thanks for all your feedback and comments. Send us an e-mail: [email protected]