The original rules for a ball going out of bounds were that the first player to get the ball could throw it in. ... However, the players actually enjoyed having the cage. Thus, the game remained inside a cage for longer than one would imagine. Obviously, this led to the rise of people calling basketball players “cagers.”

What are basketball players called cagers?

It's a nickname that was given to basketball players in the late 1800's/early 1900's when many courts had a 12-foot-high cage made of chicken wire. Why the cage? A ball that went out-of-bounds was given to the team of the first player to touch it out-of-bounds.

What does the term cager mean?

1a : a worker who loads and unloads cages and gives hoisting signals. — called also cageman, cage tender, onsetter, skip tender. b : a mechanical apparatus for pushing cars on or off a cage. 2 : a basketball player.