It's easy to get involved in a game of basketball. Players don't need a lot of equipment to play --- just proper shoes, a basketball, and a backboard with a rim --- along with other players. A game of pickup basketball can be found in every neighborhood, park, and gym. It can be played with five players on each team, as with regulation basketball, or played with four players or fewer on each team.
Self-Officiating
By its nature, pickup basketball does not have a referee to officiate the games. There is an unwritten contract among players that they will play fairly, and be honest about what takes place on the court. Players who hit an opponent while trying to block a shot can't scream a denial when the the shooter calls a foul. The shooter can't say he was fouled when he wasn't touched. Some contact is allowed between players, but you can't, say, impede your opponent by hip-checking him into the bushes if you are playing in a park. A well-placed hand on the lower back may be allowed, but you can't hammer your opponent, and you can't complain when a foul is called.
Shooting Fouls
The shooter has the right to call a foul when she is hit or impeded as she shoots or is on her way to the basket to make a layup or a dunk. However, if you are tipping in a rebound of a missed shot around the basket, and you feel your opponent's hand on your finger as he goes to block your shot, don't call a ticky-tack foul. Fouls have to be hard and prevent the player from getting a good look at the basket and taking a reasonable shot. Players who call fouls when they are barely touched soon find themselves on the outside looking in, and not allowed to participate in pickup games, because they don't play the game honestly.
Violations
In normal games, referees will blow their whistle on double dribbles, discontinued dribble, over-and-back, and out-of-bounds calls, among others. In pickup basketball, only the most egregious violations are called. If you are dribbling the ball and you dribble it off the side of your foot and it goes out of bounds, your opponent gets the ball. However, if you are dribbling the ball and a piece of the basketball appears to graze the out-of-bounds line as you dribble, your opponent cannot call out of bounds. There is no shot clock in pickup basketball, and over-and-back calls are rarely made, either, unless the ball has already been deep on to the offensive side of the court before it returns to the other side.
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