Basketball rules for beginners

Every made basket is worth two points from inside the three-point arc, three points from beyond it, and a free throw — awarded after certain fouls, shot uncontested from the free-throw line — is worth one. That's the entire scoring system; everything else in the sport is about creating a good shot and stopping the other team from getting one.

A free-throw trip can produce one, two, or three attempts depending on the type of foul and whether the shooter was in the act of shooting, which is why commentators sometimes shout "and-one" — a made basket plus a single bonus free throw for a foul committed during the shot.

Two clocks run constantly: the game clock (four 10-minute quarters in FIBA/Olympic play, four 12-minute quarters in the NBA) and the shot clock, which forces a team to at least attempt a shot within 24 seconds of gaining possession (some domestic leagues use different numbers). Run out the shot clock without shooting, and possession simply switches to the other team.

If the score is level when the game clock hits zero in the final period, the game goes to a five-minute overtime period, repeated as many times as needed until someone's ahead when the buzzer sounds.

A personal foul is illegal physical contact — reach in, hold, push, block a moving player. Rack up too many (five in FIBA play, six in the NBA) and a player is disqualified for the rest of the game. A technical foul is different: it's for unsportsmanlike conduct rather than contact, and it hands the other team free throws plus the ball.

The two violations that confuse newcomers most: traveling (taking too many steps without dribbling) and a three-second violation (an offensive player camping in the key — the painted area under the basket — for more than three seconds without leaving). Both simply turn the ball over to the other team.

Once the clocks and fouls click, the rest of basketball is about tactics — pick-and-rolls, zone defense, fast breaks. Sportoum's Basketball track builds from these exact fundamentals up to that tactical layer, with quizzes that check you actually retained it.