Of all the sports that are played, basketball rules and regulations are probably the easiest to learn. The official basketball rules center around the smaller details of the game because the major rules involved are very simple. This is one of the reasons that basketball is so popular as a street sport since the rules are straightforward and consistent at all levels of the game.

If you’re looking to light up the basketball scoreboards, these basics are a must!

Team play is at the heart of basketball basics. There are five people per team on the 50‘X54’ court at any one time. They have a round ball which they must either bounce or pass to advance towards either end of the rectangular court. The act of bouncing the ball while walking or running is called dribbling. On one end of the court is their basket, which is 10 feet off the ground and they must try to get the ball into the basket by shooting the ball or using the backboard to bank a shot in. At the other end, the team must try to prevent the other team from making a basket. They can legally do this by intercepting the ball, blocking a shot, making the other team miss a shot, or preventing the other team from shooting before the shot clock expires. The shot clock runs counts down for 24 seconds from the time one team has possession of the ball. If the team does not shoot the ball (and hit the rim) before the shot clock runs out then possession switches to the other team.

There are four quarters in the official basketball rules, each consisting of 12 minutes. To learn basketball rules, one must understand that the clock runs continuously while the game is being played except for a few exceptions. The first is time outs, which the team can call when they have possession of the ball in order to make a substitution for a player on the bench, to discuss strategy, or to give their players a brief rest. If a foul is called then the clock is also stopped, even while a player shoots free throws. Finally, if the ball goes out of bounds then the clock is stopped while it is put back in play. The team that inbounds the ball has 5-second count which they must beat or they lose possession. The clock does not stop after a made basket even though the ball is inbounded from beneath the basket.

Fouls are a major part of the official basketball rules that govern professional basketball. Players collect fouls by breaking the rules on offense or defense. When a violation is seen by one of the three official on-court referees, a foul is assessed and game play stops. Depending on the nature of the foul, the ball is either inbounded from the sidelines by the other team or two free throws are awarded. During free throws the player who was fouled, stand at the free throw line as the others stand away and shoots two shots. If he misses the second shot, the ball is live and play resumes. The most typical fouls are defensive fouls for bumping, pushing, tripping or otherwise interfering with the ball handler. On offense typical fouls come from not dribbling the ball correctly (traveling), or from the offense staying in the key for over three seconds. The key is a 2’ by 15’ box that extends from under the basket to the free throw line at either end of the court. On the sixth foul that a player collects in any one game, he is ejected from the game and may not return. Often coaches wish that their players would learn basketball rules so that they stay in the game. Once a team collects over five fouls in any one corner then that team is “in the penalty” and any foul, regardless of type, results in free throws for the other team.