What’s involved in Basketball?
Basketball is played on a court with dimensions 94 feet by 50 feet in the NBA and college basketball and 84 feet by 50 feet in high school. Each team gets their own half to score A minimum of 10 players, five on each team is required for a game. A men’s basketball circumference is 29.5"-30" and weighs usually 20-22 ounces while a women’s basketball circumference is 28.5"-29" and usually weighs 18-20 ounces. Only one ball is used in play.
Games are played in four quarters in the NBA and high school and 2 halves in the college level. A quarter in the NBA has a 12 minute clock with game time lasting a minimum time of 48 minutes, a half in college is 20 minutes, allowing a minimum of 40 minutes playing time, and a quarter in high school goes for 8 minutes with minimum game of 32 minutes.
Each player can play as long as they do not foul out. A NBA player has to sit down once reaching his 6th foul, and a college and high school player gets 5 fouls before having to sit down. A foul is when the defensive player has too much contact on the offensive player, or when the offensive player has a player control foul and knocks a stationary defender down.
Points are counted by how many shots each team can make. When a player is fouled on a shot, or the team has bonus fouls from too many fouls from the other team, that player gets a free shot. This shot is shot on the free throw line and is worth one point. Two points are added when a shot is made within the three point line. The shot can be a dunk, lay-up, or jump shot. Finally, three points are added when a player shoots outside the three point line. In the NBA, the three point shot is 23'9" from the basket and in college and high school, the regulation three is 19'9" and beyond.
What kind of options does a player with the basketball get?
The player with the ball has three options. He can either dribble, pass, or shoot the ball. Rules apply when one has the ball. One cannot take more than 2 steps when holding the ball, or called for walking with the ball, more popularly known as a traveling violation.
In order to move with the ball, one needs to dribble. More rules apply when dribbling. One can make contact only with one hand between each dribble, or else would be called for a double dribble. Also, cannot dribble, stop, pick up the ball, and start dribbling or will be called with a double dribble. Any of these rules broken will result in the other team getting the ball. Dribbling can be as basic as bouncing the ball up and down to being as advanced as dribbling between the legs, behind the back, etc. in order to maneuver around opponents.
When done dribbling, the player can either pass or shoot the ball. Passes are to teammates who are open for a shot, or have a better angle to pass to another teammate in a better scoring position. A pretty pass may be a no look pass or an ally-oop pass, which is a pass to someone in the air who can either dunk or lay-up straight from the pass. Shots can range from a dunk, lay-up, to a two or three point shot. The science of physics is involved in every aspect of the game of basketball.
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