These days, sports seasons overlap—baseball’s World Series spills over into football season. Basketball season has started. They’re playing hockey. For better or worse, every weekend there are professional sports to watch.
If the game that’s on is basketball, I have good news—it’s fast-paced and exciting, lots of points are scored, leads tend to change hands many times during a game, and it’s way easier to follow than football. On the down side, both college and professional games are televised so it can seem like all basketball all the time.
I grew up watching college games when UCLA dominated thanks to John Wooden—one of the greatest coaches of all time. In his 27 seasons, his teams won an amazing 81% of their games, and 10 national championships (seven of them consecutively).
But the Harlem Globetrotters made me fall in love with the game. They’re the most famous exhibition team—I mean comedian-athletes—ever. For years, their unfortunate opponents, the Washington Generals, have dealt with the Globetrotters’ amazing coordination, remarkable ball-handling skills, and lots and lots of rule-breaking. Since 1962, the Globetrotters have won 12,596 games and lost two. (Famous pros that played for the Globetrotters include Wilt Chamberlin and Magic Johnson.)
Here’s what you need to know to enjoy watching a game:
Like football, a basketball game is made up of four 15-minute quarters (12 minutes for college games). Five players from each team are on the court at one time, a center, two forwards and two guards. Unlike football, everyone plays both offense and defense. Additional players sit on the bench and come in as substitutes. The point guard acts as the “quarterback” of the team, calling plays and helping set up his team to score.
A basket is two points. Or three if it’s from behind the 3-point line, a semi-circle starting 23’9” from the basket.
The game starts with a jump ball, which is just what it sounds like: at mid-court a referee tosses the ball straight up in the air and the two centers jump up and try to tip the ball to their teammates so they can attempt to score.
When a team has the ball, players must dribble—the ball—as they move the ball down the court. If they hold the ball for more than three seconds and/or take more than two steps without dribbling, they are called for traveling, and their team loses the ball.
The game moves fast because there’s a 24-second shot clock (35 seconds in college) that starts as soon as the offense gets the ball in bounds. They have to try to shoot a basket before it runs out or the other team gets the ball back.
Teams also score points when they shoot free throws—worth one point each—in response to certain fouls or penalties. The free throw line is 15 feet from the basket, and the player who was fouled stands behind that line, and shoots while his teammates and the defense stand perpendicular to the basket. Defenders are not allowed to block the shot.
After a team scores, the other team gets the ball out-of-bounds, and a player has 5 seconds to pass it to one of his teammates on the court.
A couple of common terms/fouls:
A lay-up is a shot taken from close to the basket. The player jumps up in the air with the ball in one hand, and drops it into the basket, or bounces it gently off the backboard into the basket. Really pretty to watch.
Charging is an offensive foul, when the person with the ball runs over the defender as he goes to take a shot.
Defenders are allowed to touch the ball and keep it from going into the basket, but if they reach up over the rim of the basket to do so it’s a foul called goaltending.
A player can foul out of a game. In the pros, a player fouls out after six violations (five in college). A player who has fouled out cannot play for the rest of that game.
For more information than anyone but an official needs to know, go to nba.com and read their rules section.
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