I could be wrong but I seem to remember this is one of the reasons why the baskets have a net.
You’re not allowed to do that but if the net wasn’t there then in pre-video games the refs might not be able to spot if the ball went up through the hoop.
Think they were also to stop players reaching up through the hoop to defend as well.
The balance of this doesn’t surprise me. The shift between book and film is quite heavily based on gender.
The books were certainly much more male character based and the films evened it up a bit more. Although obviously still not even.