Basketball is simple to start and deep to master: two teams of five try to put the ball through a hoop 3.05 m (10 ft) high while stopping the other team from doing the same. The rules that govern how you move, how long you can hold the ball and what contact is allowed are where the depth comes from. Outside North America, almost every league, from the EuroLeague to domestic competitions in Spain, Germany, Turkey and Australia, plays to the FIBA Official Basketball Rules 2026, valid from 1 October 2026. In the US, the NBA has its own rulebook (NBA Official Rules 2025-26), college basketball follows the NCAA rules and high schools follow NFHS. The core game is the same; the numbers differ.
Players, court and equipment
Each team has five players on the court and substitutes on the bench, and substitutions are unlimited. Positions are informal: point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward and centre are roles, not rules.
| Specification | FIBA | NBA |
|---|---|---|
| Court | 28 × 15 m | 94 × 50 ft (28.65 × 15.24 m) |
| Ring height | 3.05 m | 10 ft |
| Three-point line | 6.75 m (6.60 m in the corners) | 23 ft 9 in (7.24 m), 22 ft (6.71 m) in the corners |
| No-charge semicircle | 1.25 m radius | Restricted area arc |
| Ball | Size 7 for men, size 6 for women | Size 7 (29.5 in); WNBA uses size 6 |
NCAA men’s and women’s basketball now use the same 6.75 m three-point distance as FIBA.
Scoring
- Field goal: 2 points from inside the three-point line, 3 points from beyond it. A shooter’s feet must be behind the line for a three; a foot on the line makes it a two.
- Free throw: 1 point, taken from the free-throw line after certain fouls.
- Goaltending and basket interference: touching the ball on its downward flight toward the basket, or touching the ring or ball inside the cylinder when not allowed, cancels a defensive stop. The basket is awarded; if attackers commit it, the basket does not count.
The team with more points at the end wins. If you are running a game without an arena scoreboard, our online scoreboard tracks points, fouls and the clock in one screen.
Game length and timeouts
A FIBA game is four 10-minute quarters with a 2-minute break between the first and second and between the third and fourth quarters, and 15 minutes at half-time. The NBA plays four 12-minute quarters. NCAA men play two 20-minute halves, NCAA women four 10-minute quarters, and US high schools under NFHS rules four 8-minute quarters. Overtime is 5 minutes (4 minutes in NFHS high-school play), repeated until there is a winner. The game clock stops on whistles, so the real duration is much longer; our guide on how long a basketball game lasts breaks it down.
FIBA teams get two timeouts in the first half, three in the second half (no more than two in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter) and one per overtime. NBA teams get seven per game, with limits in the fourth quarter. A practice session or a youth game run on an interval timer can mirror these periods closely.
Time rules: the shot clock and friends
Basketball is a game of counts. Under FIBA rules:
| Rule | Limit |
|---|---|
| Shot clock | 24 seconds to attempt a shot that touches the ring |
| Offensive rebound reset | 14 seconds after the ball touches the ring and the offence rebounds |
| Backcourt | 8 seconds to move the ball into the frontcourt |
| Restricted area | An attacker may not stay in the opponents’ restricted area for more than 3 seconds |
| Closely guarded | 5 seconds to pass, shoot or dribble when tightly guarded |
| Throw-in | 5 seconds to release the ball |
The NBA uses the same 24 and 14-second shot clock and 8-second rule, and adds a defensive three-second rule: a defender cannot stay in the lane for more than three seconds unless actively guarding an opponent. NCAA basketball uses a 30-second shot clock. In US high schools a 35-second shot clock is allowed and has been adopted state by state.
Violations
A violation is a rules breach without illegal contact. The penalty is a throw-in for the opponents.
- Travelling: moving illegally with the ball. After gathering the ball a player may take a gather step (often called the zero step) plus two steps. The NBA allows the same two steps after the gather.
- Double dribble: dribbling, stopping, then dribbling again, or dribbling with both hands at once.
- Carrying (palming): letting the ball come to rest in the hand during a dribble.
- Backcourt violation: returning the ball to the backcourt after the team has established frontcourt control.
- Out of bounds: the ball or a player holding it touches the line or the floor outside it.
- Kicked ball: deliberately playing the ball with the foot or leg.
Our guide to basketball fouls and violations goes through each of these with the 2026 FIBA wording.
Fouls
A foul involves illegal contact or unsporting behaviour. Defensive fouls on a player who is shooting give two or three free throws, or one if the shot goes in. Non-shooting fouls give a throw-in until the team is in the penalty: under FIBA rules, from the fifth team foul in a quarter, every further defensive foul gives two free throws.
| Rule | FIBA | NBA | NCAA | NFHS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal fouls to foul out | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| Team penalty | From the 5th team foul per quarter | From the 5th team foul per quarter (2nd in the last 2 minutes) | Men: per half; women: per quarter | Per quarter |
The FIBA 2026 rules replace the old unsportsmanlike foul with two new categories, disruptive fouls and flagrant fouls, and split technical fouls into two categories. These matter for disqualification and are explained in the fouls guide.
Starting and restarting play
FIBA and NBA games begin with a jump ball at centre court. After that, FIBA uses the alternating possession arrow for later held-ball situations, while the NBA uses a jump ball between the players involved. After a made basket, the defending team inbounds from behind its own end line. After a timeout in the last two minutes of the game, FIBA and NBA rules let the team in possession advance the ball to the frontcourt throw-in line.
Keeping stats
Coaches measure more than the score. Points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, turnovers and missed shots combine into efficiency ratings such as the FIBA-style efficiency (EFF) and the PIR used in European leagues. You can calculate them for any player with our basketball efficiency calculator, which turns a box-score line into a single number for comparing performances across games.