I’ve seen that when nets first started to be used (rather than a peach basket), they were similarly without provision to conveniently admit the ball to pass through (cite: a glance in a reprint of the 1923 Sears Roebuck Catalogue). I forget where I heard where later they were constructed with a drawstring on the bottom to allow the ball to pass, albeit still with a measure of bother. When did the first organized game occur with an open-bottomed net?
As far as U.S. college basketball and the NBA is concerned, I notice also that the shape of today’s net is distinctively different than the nets used in the 1940s or so. That is, the style used then was more of a cone, whereas today and the recent past it more closely resembles the cross-section of a vortex. Is there any reason in particular for this change, other than aesthetics? How much thought goes (and went) into the design of a basketball net?