James Naismith created the original 13 rules for “basket ball” in 1892, outlining the method of scoring, what constitutes a foul and how to determine which team wins.
Those rules evolved as the game grew.
The peach baskets were replaced by rims and backboards were added. Team sizes were trimmed from nine to five players, the name of the game became one word. Players were allowed to dribble the ball, scoring increased from one to two points for a made basket.
Photo: AP
Other rules were added later: A midcourt line to prevent stalling, a three-second area to keep offensive players from camping around the basket, goaltending to stop tall players from swatting nearly every shot away from the basket.
However, as basketball expanded into multiple levels, the rules spiderwebbed into varying directions.
International basketball developed different rules than the NBA. College basketball had its own tweaks, even from men’s to women’s. High school and youth basketball created their own sets of rules to suit players in those age groups.
Photo: AP
Everyone is playing the same basic game, but not always under the same regulations.
“FIBA [International Basketball Federation], the NBA, college and high school, I wish we all had the same rules,” said Nevada coach Eric Musselman, who spent nine years as an NBA coach. “To me, it’s too confusing for the average fan to watch an NBA [game] when there’s a 24-second clock in the NBA, then you watch the NCAA and there’s a different clock. Or you watch a women’s game and there’s four quarters and the men’s game has two halves. We’ve got to make it simple for the fan.”
It can be confusing. Depending on what level the game is being played, the three-point line, the shot clock, even the rim and court sizes could all be different.
FIBA plays four 10-minute quarters, while the NBA has four 12-minute quarters. Men’s college basketball has two 20-minute halves, but women play four 10-minute quarters. The WNBA used to have 20-minute halves, but now has 10-minute quarters. High school games have four 8-minute quarters.
Shot clock, same thing. FIBA, the NBA and WNBA all have a 24-second shot clock. NCAA men and women have a 30-second shot clock, although the men were 35 seconds before the 2015-2016 season. In high-school basketball, some states have a shot clock, others do not.
Even timeouts are widely varied; type, duration, number allowed, who can call one.
“I can’t understand why we can’t have world rules,” New Mexico coach Craig Neal said. “Everybody plays by the same line, everybody plays by the same shot clock, the same ball. To me, that’s kind of confusing.”
Distances can vary, too.
FIBA has a trapezoid lane that widens from 12 to 19 feet. The NBA and WNBA lane is 16 feet straight across, but the NCAA lane is 12 feet, same as high schools.
The NBA has the deepest three-point line at 7.2m. FIBA’s line is 6.3m, just like the WNBA, and the NCAA line is 6m, just like high schools.
In North American sports, changes are often made in ball sizes, court/field dimensions, goal sizes. Depending on the age group, the basketball rim can be 3.1m, 2.7m or 2.4m high.
“We make more modifications for the sports than any other country,” Wake Forest University coach Danny Manning said. “I just think we’ve got to get to a point where the rules are the rules. Internationally, you have the FIBA rules. Those are the rules.”
The key is finding a set of rules that will work everyone. That will not be easy.
For one, the games are different.
Basketball, as much as any other sport, has a massive gap in talent from one level to the next. NBA players are bigger, stronger, faster, play more above the rim and can shoot from farther out than anyone else, even on the international level.
For them to have the same rules as a 12-and-under recreational league team, for example, might not make that much sense.
“I think there needs to be a combination of international play in the NBA and college rules,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “I don’t think you definitely go to NBA rules. I don’t feel that way, because it’s a different game, a different caliber of athlete.”
There is also an issue of getting FIBA, the NBA, NCAA and National Federation of High School Associations to collaborate. That might be next to impossible.
“Everybody’s going to make their own decision,” Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner John Swofford said. “The NBA’s going to do what the NBA wants to do, the Olympic committee is going to do what they want to do, but I think it’s worth considering.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier