Official Basketball Rules

Like any other sport, basketball has its own official basketball rules to follow. Rules and regulations are what govern the play. The first set of basketball rules and regulations were indeed created by the inventor of the game. It was Dr. James Naismith who came up with the original 13 rules of basketball.

Each league has its own set of official basketball rules. There is a set of official NCAA basketball rules like other college basketball official rule from other countries. In high school, different countries have their own official high school basketball rule in which different schools have their unique official high school basketball rules.

If you are looking for a specific set of basketball official rules of a certain league, you can easily search it online. To give you a preview of the original official basketball rules, here’s a summarized version of the first set of official basketball rules from Dr. James Naismith.

First rule: the ball can be thrown with both or just one hand to any direction.

Second rule: you cannot use the fist to bat the ball.

Third rule: a player cannot run while he holds the ball.

Fourth rule: the ball cannot be held by any part of the body except the hands.

Fifth rule: there shall be no holding, pushing, tripping, striking or shouldering of an opponent. If one shall do this, it will be counted as a foul. Second offense will disqualify the player until someone shoots a goal. If it looks like a player is purposely trying to injure another player, then he will be disqualified for the whole duration of the game. Substitution is not allowed.

Sixth rule: foul is using the fist to strike a ball plus violation of the rules 3 to 5.

Seventh rule: if a team commits 3 fouls consecutively, the opponent counts a goal.

Eighth rule: goal is made when a ball thrown or batted shoots the basket.

Ninth rule: if the ball goes outside the court, the first player touching it shall throw it in. If there’s dispute the umpire will throw it into the field.

Tenth rule: the umpire shall be the judge of the players and will note the number of fouls and disqualify players.

Eleventh rule: the referee is the judge of the ball. He is in charge of deciding if a goal is made, to which side it belongs, and also in charge of the time.

Twelfth rule: there are two 15 minute plays with a five-minute break in between.

Thirteenth rule: after the time stated, the team with most goals wins. If there’s a draw, depending on the agreement of captains, the game can continue until one team scores.

If you know the modern game now, you will see that some of these rules have been changed to fit the times. Plus, each league has their own set of rules and regulations but the basics can be found in Dr. Naismith's original 13 rules.