The Mesoamerican ballgame and basketball both happen to have a hoop that players tried to put the ball through. But, in the Mesoamerican ballgame, the hoop is a different size in relation to the ball and is vertical to the ground instead of horizontal to the ground. The field that the Mesoamerican ballgame was played on was an I-shape and the rings (hoops) were set on the sides at midfield. In fact, the rings weren't even a big part of the game as they weren't added until later. Besides the rings, the ballgame has nothing to do with basketball. Even if James Naismith did base his game, originally called Basket Ball, off the earlier ballgame, he changed it so much that I'd still call him the inventor of basketball, as volleyball and tennis are much more closely related than the ballgame and basketball.