I started by making my basketball. I followed this great tutorial http://www.3dvalley.com/tutorials/modeling-a-highly-detailed-basketball-in-3d-studio-max
step 2 of 6
The tongue started out as a box and I just moved verts and applied meshsmooth when I was happy with the shape.
step 3 of 6
The backboard is made from a box as with the parts connecting to the rim. The rim is just a tube.
step 4 of 6
For the net I used a geosphere and selected the top half polys and the very bottom polys and deleted them. I then transform its shape ,using the free transform tool, into more of a shape of a basketball net. Then I selected all the edges going around the object, but not the top or bottom ones, then holding down ctrl hit backspace (this deletes only the lines and not the polys).
step 5 of 6
Now when your happy with the shape select the very bottom verts and add a noise modifier (don't deselect verts) adjust the modifier till your happy with the wave of the bottom part of the net. Now add a lattice modifier and adjust down till once again your happy. Remember don't deselect those verts.
step 6 of 6
Now we add a meshsmooth at 1 iteration and your net is done. Assemble all your objects and that's it.