The Midwestern Roots, and Woods, of N.B.A. Courts

Building a basketball court can involve dozens of logs, hundreds of workers and thousands of hours.

"... It begins 2,200 miles away from Los Angeles, in the tiny mill town of Amasa, Mich. There, Connor Sports, one of the leading makers of hardwood courts, spent about a year procuring trees and building the court, a process that involved dozens of logs, hundreds of workers and thousands of hours. At the company’s plant amid the forests of the Upper Peninsula, workers traversing a maze of conveyors, saws and other machinery dried, cut, planed and shaved strips of wood during the two 10-hour shifts that run six days a week. ..."

NY Times

The company builds about 800 courts a year, for N.B.A. and college teams as well as high schools around the country.