The NBA has established rather plain, understandable rules and procedures to maintain a standard of quality for the basketball game. These laws and stipulations provide a perfect guideline for all the players, officials and fans about how this professional game is played and controlled over the years.
If you want to achieve your basketball profession's goal, you must learn about the NBA official rules very quickly. A good player is someone who knows what he needs to do and what he does not. So, anyone who does not have too much knowledge about these official NBA basketball rules will surely make plenty of game time mistakes. So, it is necessary to take note of all the basketball rules very keenly.
26 NBA Official Rules
Here is the list of basketball rules, what NBA follows:
1. The basketball court should be 94 feet in length and 50 feet in width.
2. According to the NBA rules, free throw lines should be 16 feet(4.9 m) wide.
3. Three point line is 23’9’’ inches away from the basket.
4. Restricted area arc should be four feet from the basketball hoop.
5. Horizontally, the NBA size backboard will be 6 feet(7.2 inches) and vertically 3.5 feet(42 inches). Inner rectangle on the backboard should be 24 inches wide by 18 inches in length.
6. Rims must be 18 inches in diameter.
7. NBA basketball should be 29.5 inches in circumference and in between 7.5 and 8.5 pounds.
8. Each team can have 5 players at maximum on their respective side. Substitution can be done at anytime.
9. A player can use one or both hands to play the game.
10. The ball can be thrown in any direction.
11. The only way to move the ball is by dribbling or passing. Neither arms nor any other parts of the body should be allowed to use.
12. A team will have 10 seconds to move forward with the ball into the opposition’s court.
13. When a team gets possession of the ball they will have 24 seconds to shoot at the hoop. Whenever the ball goes through the basketball net, the shot clock is restarted for another 24 seconds.
14. Whenever a team is trying to score a goal they are called the offense. And the team who is doing all to block them so, they can’t score is called the defense.
15. You can’t run with the ball. You must throw it from the spot you catch. Only allowance is for catching the ball while you run.
16. It will be considered as a foul if you attempt to strike the ball with a fist. Any kind of holding, tripping, pushing, or shouldering your opponent will cost you a penalty.
17. Also, you can’t trip, shoulder, strike, hold or push anyone on their way.
18. You shall be awarded free throws after the opposing team commits a foul on you or against the shooter of your team. One player must attempt these free throws. It is the position of the court where the foul occurs that ultimately decides how many free throws a player will get.
19. Any basketball game can be played into two fifteen halves with a five minute break in between.
20. An NBA game has 4 quarters of 12 minutes each.
21. Each team shall be given six-60 second timeout with one 20 second timeout allowed for each half game. Entering into the fourth quarter, you can’t have more than three timeout.
22. A goal is scored when the ball goes through the basket. Even if the ball does not drop but stays at the basketball, this will be considered as a goal too.
23. Ball handling violations like double dribble, carrying. Traveling, exercise time is taken, basket interference, goaltending is considered violations.
24. It’s true there is no limit to the number of substitutions, but no overtime will be given to take off your warm-up jersey or others.
25. The referee shall judge every game. There should be three basketball officials to monitor the game.
26. The side with most number of points is ultimately declared as a winner.
Wrapping Up
Now you know the ins and outs of the rules of basketball. But you need to remember these things every time you play on the court. Let me give you simple tips about how you can put all these things in your memory.
During practice, try to spend few minutes thinking about these rules, what you should do and what you should not. Tell these to your teammates and yourself. This will make it a lot easier to remember. So, get accustomed to these rules and taste a lot of success in this beautiful game.
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