The rules of the game

BASKETBALL TRAINING Reading time : 8 min Updated August 10, 2026
The rules a coach needs, cited at article level in the FIBA 2024 Official Basketball Rules — including the one almost everyone gets wrong: there is no flagrant foul in FIBA.
Rules · The court

The FIBA court

The dimensions published in the FIBA Official Basketball Rules, drawn to scale.

The FIBA court Plan view of the 28 by 15 metre basketball court: the key, the centre circle, the 6.75 metre three-point line and the no-charge semi-circle. 28 m 15 m 6.75 m 4.90 m 5.80 m The key Three-point line Centre circle
  • 6.60 m in the corners: the two parallel lines sit 0.90 m from the sidelines.
  • No-charge semi-circle: 1.25 m radius from the point below the centre of the ring.
  • Ring at 3.05 m — a height, and so not shown in plan view.

Source: FIBA Official Basketball Rules 2024 — the playing court.

Playing time

A FIBA game is 4 quarters of 10 minutes (art. 8.1), with 2-minute intervals between the 1st and 2nd and between the 3rd and 4th quarters (8.3), a 15-minute half-time (8.4) and, if tied, 5-minute overtimes repeated until decided (8.7).

The game clock stops on every dead ball: a “10-minute period” lasts well over 10 minutes on the wall. In youth basketball the FFBB publishes different lengths per category (4×6 at U9/U11, 4×7 to 4×10 at U13).

The clocks

  • 24 seconds to shoot, reset to 14 in the situations defined in art. 29.2 — notably when the ball touches the ring and the same team regains control (29.2.7).
  • 8 seconds to cross the centre line (28.1.1). Note: it is 10 seconds at every US level except the NBA.
  • 5 seconds when closely guarded, 3 seconds in the opponents' restricted area (26.1.1).

Fouls, and the word “flagrant”

The FIBA hierarchy has four levels: personal (art. 34), technical (36), unsportsmanlike (37), disqualifying (38).

There is no “flagrant foul” in FIBA. The word “flagrant” appears only inside the definition of a disqualifying foul — “any flagrant unsportsmanlike action” (38.1.1) — never as a category. “Flagrant foul” is NBA vocabulary. In FIBA terms you say unsportsmanlike foul and disqualifying foul.

Five fouls of any type and the player leaves the game (40.1). Separately, two technicals, two unsportsmanlike, or one of each, mean disqualification — the two counters combine (36.2.3, 37.2.3, 40.4).

A technical foul by a player counts as one of that player's fouls and as a team foul; a technical from the bench is charged to the head coach and does not count as a team foul (36.3.1).

The bonus

A team is in the penalty situation after 4 team fouls in a quarter — so from the 5th onward (41.1.1). The count resets each quarter, and overtime fouls count as fourth-quarter fouls (41.1.3).

Sources

  • FIBA — Official Basketball Rules 2024 (v1.0a, valid as of 1 October 2024), articles cited inline.
  • FFBB — Annexe 3 to the General Regulations for per-category game lengths.
Last updated: August 10, 2026 ID : help.basketball.rules-of-the-game