The rules of basketball test players' skills as well as give all participants an equal opportunity to participate in fair play. Coaches, players and officials must understand the basic ground rules of basketball to have an organized game. Officials are charged with understanding the ground rules and making sure they are enforced fairly.
Players and Game Play
Five players from each team are allowed on the court at any one time. Failure to provide enough players at the start of the game is ground for forfeit. Having too many players on the court when the ball is live can be penalized by a technical foul. Games consist of either quarters in the case of high school and professional play, or halves in college basketball. High school quarters last eight minutes. College halves are 20 minutes long, and the NBA uses 12 minute quarters. If the game is tied at the end of regulation, an overtime period is used to determine a winner. As many overtimes as necessary are used in order to declare a winner. Barring extenuating circumstances, there are no ties in basketball.
Violations
Violations are basic rules that players and teams break during the course of the game, such as traveling, double-dribble and out-of-bounds violation. The rules penalize teams for violations by awarding the basketball to the opposing team in most cases. Traveling consists of moving the feet an excessive number of times while holding the basketball. A double dribble violation is defined as dribbling the ball a second time after a player has legally ended his dribble. Out-of-bounds violations can include stepping over the out-of-bounds line while throwing the ball in, waiting more than 5 seconds to inbound the ball and failing to pass the ball inbounds so that it is caught by or hits another player.
Fouls
Fouls usually consist of illegal physical contact between players. Any contact that causes an advantage or disadvantage for any player is considered a foul. Common fouls are penalized by awarding the fouled team the ball out of bounds closest to the spot where the foul occurred. A foul committed against a player shooting the ball is penalized by awarding the fouled player two free throws, or three if the player was shooting a legal three-point shot. Technical fouls are used for administrative purposes, such as penalizing a team for not listing all of its players in the scorebook, and for unsportsmanlike conduct, such as taunting another player or berating an official.
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