NBA Video Rulebook Released

I’ve been waiting for this for a long time, and I suspect there are quite a few people like me out there. NBA has put together a section on their website dedicated to explaining rules – this time backed up by videos from real games. Of course, the have a rulebook in PDF format, they’ve had it forever, but this is different. At least for me. Now I know exactly when a player committed defensive three second violation.

Once again, here’s the link: http://www.nba.com/videorulebook/.

Game Rules

Basket, Backboard and Ball

The original basket was a peach basket nailed to the wall of a gymnasium. This type of basket and its position, however, eventually proved impractical. In 1897, a board (later known as the backboard) was placed behind the basket to allow the ball to bounce off it during shots. The bottom of the basket was cut open to allow the ball to fall through in 1914, thereby eliminating the need to poke the ball out every time a goal was scored.

In 1921, the basket and backboard were moved two feet (60 cm) from the wall to stop players climbing the wall to score baskets. The basket and backboard were moved inwards a further two feet in 1940 to allow more movement underneath the basket without players going out of bounds.

The ball was originally 32 inches (81 cm) in circumference; this was reduced to 31 inches (79 cm) in 1931. A further reduction took place in 1935 to the current circumference of between 29½ and 30¼ inches (74.9 and 76.8 cm). Read more ->