Classic Post: Rules of the Court

While I'm apprehensively awaiting my ACL surgery which is in three days, and finding myself unmotivated to blog about new stuff, I've decided to continue to clean out my "old posts" file. Here is an amended one which appeared in February 2006.


Some time ago, while chatting with my mother, I mentioned that I was tired from playing basketball at the gym, and that the team I'm on kept winning so we kept playing.

She said, "So, when your team wins, you play again?"

I said, "Yeah, that's the way it usually works."

She was surprised. "Wow. Well, that doesn't seem far. Shouldn't the team that wins sit down to give other people a chance to play?"

I laughed. "I don't think so... what would be the incentive to win then?"

We talked for a while about the generally understood rules of pick-up basketball from playground, open-gym, and pick-up basketball at the courts that I have played on. I'd assume these rules are fairly consistent regardless of where you play (although, interestingly, I have noticed a couple of small subtle differences in the games people play while waiting for a full court game in South Jersey vs. North Jersey. For instance, the game I played growing up called "21" is called "Roughhouse" in South Jersey. I also learned a 1-1 style rotation game... called "Wake and Bake" or something like that, where you play 1-1 games up to 1 and whoever scores first, stays on and gets a point and the game is up to whatever amount.)

In any case, I thought I would try to summarize the rules of playground basketball, as I understand them. Note: "playground" and "pick-up" are interchangeable, and just mean an unorganized game of basketball that starts when random people gather at a place, playground, gym, whatever, to play. It doesn't necessarily mean a literal playground.


When is the game over?

In most places, the game is played up to a set amount of baskets. Common amounts are 7 or 9 (usually, when there are several teams waiting to play, the games will be up to this short amount), 11 or 12 (medium, common length), or 15 or 16 baskets (this is done if it seems to be the consensus that at least several players are making the game their last game of the day, so this last game can be played a little longer). Some courts have 3-point lines drawn on them, and some do not. On courts with painted 3-point lines, the decision has to be made as to whether a 3-point shot "counts". More often than not, all baskets will be worth 1 point, but if a 3-pointer "counts", it usually counts as 2 points, making it worth proportionally more than a 3-pointer in an official game.

(Note: for all of these items, when I say things like "a decision is made" or "the players decide", it usually falls on players that play on that court often. If you are visiting a court you don't play at on a regular basis, people tend to defer to the players there and ask them "how do you play here?" or "what is the game up to?" This obviously includes any irregularities that certain parks might have with boundaries of the court - that is, what counts as out of bounds and what doesn't, for instance.)


How are teams chosen for the first game of the day, as people start to gather?

Almost always, the game is 5 on 5. On smaller courts, the game may be 3 on 3 or 4 on 4.

If there are the exact amount of people that are required to play, teams are usually chosen by shooting free-throws. If this is the case, usually either
(a) the first 3, 4, or 5 people to make their free-throw will become the first team, and everybody else becomes the second team; or
(b) the first two people who make their free-throw become "captains" and then they choose up the teams, alternating choosing players for the respective teams. (Unfortunately, in a phenomenon reminiscent of high school gym class, somebody has the dubious distinction of being "picked last".)

If more people are there than the exact amount that are required to play, teams will be chosen by either method described above. However, if method (a) is used, everybody has to shoot the free-throw, as the first 5 people making a free-throw, for instance, will mean that a "second team" will have to be chosen.

Here is an example: Let's say, for instance, 13 people are choosing teams for a 5-on-5 game, and in the first go-around 8 guys make the free-throw out of 13, the first five who made it become Team 1. The 3 other guys are on Team 2, and the 5 guys who missed will shoot again for those 2 remaining spots. Then, out of the 5 guys who re-shoot, 3 guys make it and 2 guys miss. Those 3 guys will have to re-shoot, and the 2 guys who missed lose their chance to shoot again. Those 3 guys re-shoot and so it continues until there are exactly 10 players.


The first game has commenced, and guys are waiting to play the next game. Who gets to play in the next game, and in what order?

This is a common point of contention in playground games. Here is how it usually works, broken down in a case-by-case basis. In all cases, I will assume a 5-on-5 game but the rules would be similar for a 4-on-4 game.

If there are 4 guys or less waiting: In this case, after the game is over, those guys automatically get to play in the next game. If all members of the winning team opt to play again and "defend their title", then the guys on the losing team most shoot free throws in the method described above to see who gets to join the oncoming team to play in the next game. The rub comes, regardless of how many people are waiting to play, when one or more members of the winning team decide they do not want to play again. Then, the protocol is a little bit less clear. More often than not, the winning team gets to choose which players of those waiting to play they want on their team - as an implicit privilege of winning, I suppose - even if those newcomers arrived after guys waiting to play.

If there are more than 5 guys waiting: In this case, if five guys have arrived at the court first they usually will form a team and the 6th player to arrive has "next". This means that this player has jurisdiction over the next team to have dibs on the court. It is a clear-cut case of what order you arrive in... unless a player wants to reserve a spot on a team for a friend who has not arrived at the court yet. In those cases, the alpha-male of the court, or else a civilized consensus may be reached by the collective unit.


How is the game officiated?

Clearly, there are no referees in these games. Fouls and violations are decided by a "call your own foul" rule. In other words, if a player observes a violation they call it out loud by stating loudly and clearly "Foul" or "My ball" or something similar. The call must be made promptly, though, or else it is known as a "late call" and may or may not be respected by the other players. If the call is fair, most times people will "respect the call" and appropriate action will be taken, which usually is to give the ball to the team that the call is in favor of. Occassionally, a player will abuse the priviledge of being able to call his/her own fouls and other players may treat them as 'the boy who cried wolf' and stop respecting their calls. Also, offensive fouls are rarely called, as are calls like palming the ball.


Are there free throws in playground basketball?

Usually not. If a player gets fouled in a manner that would ordinarily give them a chance to shoot free throws, at the playground they will just be awarded possession of the ball. Something that varies from court to court is if "continuation" is awarded - that is, when a player calls a foul and makes the shot they were fouled while shooting - ordinarily, they would count the basket and get one foul shot, in an official game. In a playground game, since there are no foul shots, the only remaining question is, does the basket still count, or does the foul call negate the basket? This is decided from place to place, by the players that usually play there. (The intent of not counting the rule is presumably to prevent players from calling a foul if they are not sure if their shot is going to go in, and therefore will be less likely to call fouls recklessly, consequently negating possible baskets made by themself.)

Anything else out of the ordinary is usually decided by a general consensus, unless there is an alpha-male type who takes over and makes a decision for everybody. (Isn't that how things are usually decided in the real world?)

What did I miss?