This town in central New York claims to be the birthplace of basketball.

Story UpdateThe Herkimer 9 Foundation has further highlighted Herkimer as the true birthplace of basketball with new signage along Route 5S at the New York Thruway, allowing thousands of motorists to learn about the area’s basketball legends.

Check out WKTV's news package on the sign additions.

To read the original article from April 2022, scroll down.

Even the most avid basketball fans may not know where the sport was invented or by who.

According to popular belief, the game was invented by James Naismith, a YMCA instructor working in Springfield, Massachusetts, who was tasked by his superiors with coming up with a new game to entertain the children who attended the facility.

Naismith found a ball, hung a basket of peaches high above the floor, and in an instant, basketball was born. Naismith is now, you guessed it, the namesake of the National Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

That being said, the legitimacy of Naismith's legacy is somewhat disputed, with a group of people profiled in the Washington Post article instead arguing that their Central New York town served as the backdrop for the invention of a new game.

The Legend of Lambert Will and Basketball in Herkimer, New York

Just over an hour west of Albany, near Utica, lies the town/village of Herkimer, New York. Herkimer was settled in the 1700s and had a population of just over 10,000 as of the 2010 census.

Although it is a rural town, there is a lot of history in various states of preservation.

One landmark that no longer exists but remains in the history books is the old Herkimer YMCA located on Main Street in the center of town. The YMCA burned down a few years ago and what once stood on its site is now a parking lot next to the M&T Bank.

If you weren't alive when it existed, or read about it, you would never have known it even existed.

But not only did the city exist, it's also said to be the birthplace of basketball, the fastest growing sport in America.

The man Herkimer residents credit as the inventor of basketball is Lambert Will, a Swedish immigrant who, according to The Washington Post, was just 16 years old when he was tossing cabbages into a basket for fun, but, as some say, unintentionally made history.

This controversy stems from two separate years in history, 1891 and 1892. In 1891, the old Herkimer YMCA was purportedly the site of a game between a YMCA team and a local group. Not only that, but there is a faded photograph of a YMCA-based team holding a ball, with “91-92” inscribed on the photo, indicating the “1891-1892” season. If true, this would mean that the team pictured in the photo began playing the game in 1891.

Meanwhile, Naismith is credited with inventing basketball a year later, in 1892, in Springfield.

Unfortunately, records from this era are very hard to find, so there is not nearly enough evidence to prove that any one person was better than anyone else at inventing the basketball. Lambert Will never filed for a patent for the basketball, nor did he ever try to claim credit as an inventor.

He reportedly said he wasn't looking for any glory for what he created, but was just happy that he was able to give people joy by playing the game.

James Naismith is synonymous with basketball and his role in popularizing the sport is unquestionable, but there's also good evidence that the sport's true origins can be traced back to the Empire State.

What do you believe?