A Breakaway Rim is a special type of basketball hoop that has a spring and hinge where it attaches to the backboard.
This allows the rim to bend down and then snap back into place when a player dunks the ball.
Breakaway rims help prevent injuries and keep the backboard from breaking.
Before the breakaway rim was invented, dunking was not very common in basketball games. Players worried about hurting their wrists or shattering the backboard. Broken backboards could delay games for a long time.
In the 1970s, players like Julius Erving and David Thompson started dunking more often in games. They played in the ABA League and excited fans with their high-flying dunks.
This made people want basketball hoops that could handle more dunking.
Many people say they invented the breakaway rim, but the Smithsonian Museum says Arthur Ehrat should get the credit. Ehrat lived in Illinois and didn't know much about basketball. He worked at a grain elevator.
In 1975, his nephew was a college basketball coach. He asked Ehrat to make a rim that could survive slam dunks.
Ehrat used a spring from a tractor to make a rim that could bend and then snap back after 125 pounds of force. He called it "The Rebounder". In 1982, he got a patent for his "deformation-preventing swingable mount for basketball goals."
The first breakaway rims were used in college basketball at the 1978 Final Four in St. Louis. The National Basketball Association started using them in the 1981-82 season. This was an important change that made dunking safer.
Today, breakaway rims are used at every level of basketball.
They have changed the game by letting players dunk more often without fear of injury or breaking the hoop.