They act like it's surprising that a sport that takes nothing more than a ball filled with air to play is more popular than sports that require hundreds of dollars of equipment or large fields to play. Kicking a ball around an alley qualifies as soccer.
1. Football takes a large field to play same as NFL NBA etc
2. A basketball and an American football is...wait for it....a ball filled with air.
3. Both football and basketball have nets/goals.
4. Does that mean unless you are playing in a multi-million pound stadium that playing 3 on 3 basketball on a street corner with a net screwed onto a wall does not count as basketball?
5. I hope this helps.