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Basketball's "Unwritten" Rules
[StealthSkater note: There are formal written rules as to how Basketball games are played. But there also exists "unwritten rules" regarding etiquette etc. I found that these are not as spelled out as much as in Baseball (e.g., see => doc pdf URL ). Nonetheless, here is what I found ...]
1. If your team is winning at the end of a game, don't take a shot at the buzzer. It makes you look cocky and is a sign of disrespect to the other team. This is just considered unsportsmanlike. Usually at the end of a lopsided game if the winning team has the ball for the last possession, the losing team won’t even bother to guard the offensive players. This is a sign that the losing team has conceded the game. At this time, the player with the ball should just dribble the ball and run out the clock
2. Usually players shake hands, hug, etc. after the game. They know that the NBA is just a brotherhood of players. Even if 2 players get in a scuffle during the game, it usually isn't meant with hard feelings after the game.
3. If one of your teammates gets in a scuffle, you should stand up for that player. Stand your ground in a way that it won’t escalate the problem. Most players know their teammates have their back. But actions like these speak louder than words.
4. No one should be happy if anyone goes down with an injurydespite that it would change the complexion of the game (for better or worse). Every player should want to defeat the other team in a fair and ethical manner. Still, don’t give any handicap to the injured team. The injured is not the only one playing so give respect.
5. Being respectful when losing. It is easy for anyone to get mad, blame the refs, blame your teammates. It is hard to recognize that the other team just outplayed you; your team made mental mistakes; etc.
6. After a free throw attempt, you must make a quick tap to your teammates. Not doing this makes you cocky and not adhering to the tap would hang your player. Not cool.
7. Always offer an immediate hand to a teammate down. Can also include opposing players as it’s a good sign of sportsmanship.
8. Garbage time is garbage time. Anything you do in this futile last minutes/seconds are just to pad your stats with garbage stats. It’s also makes you look cocky and opportunistic. For example, a player shouldn’t shoot threes late in a game where his team is up big just so he can beat the record for the most threes in a game. A player shouldn’t intentionally miss a shot so he can get the rebound a have a triple-double for the game. A player shouldn’t pass up wide open shots because he trying to break an assists record. These are examples of padding your stats intentionally.
9. Reconcile with the opposing teams after the game ended. You may be enemies in the court. But outside it, at least respect each other for playing the game you love.
10. Don’t leave a man hanging for a high-five. Especially after an and-one basket. It’s the “Westbrook rule”.
11. The bench is the unofficial first layer of cheering squads of your team. On or off the bench, you must do everything in your power to help your team. Even showing signs of encouragement to the players on the court makes a difference.
12. Never press a team that you are beating soundly. Even if you are a team that likes to run the full-court press, you should not do it when the game is strongly in your favor. It is just not proper to do.
13. Lane violations don’t exist. When a free throw shooter is attempting his foul shot, it doesn’t really matter if the other players on the floor are standing still outside the paint (like they’re supposed to) or not. As long as they don’t jump all the way into the center of the lane and do the Macarena, they’re not going to be whistled for a lane violation. On a normal free-throw rebound attempt, more than half of the players move early to get into position. It’s just accepted at this point.
14. When in doubt, run an ‘iso.’ The single most used play in professional basketball has to be an isolation whether by necessity because there are no other good offensive options or by design. If you want to be an NBA coach, just get a good wing scorer or post player, tell your point guard to throw the ball to them as soon as it crosses half-court, and then instruct the 4 players on the floor that don’t have the ball to get as far out of the way as possible. (That is, until it’s time to go rebound the isolated player’s tough pull-up miss.)
15. Foul anyone hard that you want to except a superstar. Feel free to take a hard foul on Cavaliers forward Anderson Varejao if it will keep him from getting an easy basket, if you want to make point, or if you’re trying to stop the clock. But don’t you dare commit the same foul on Cavaliers forward LeBron James unless you want to risk a flagrant foul, ejection, or perhaps even banishment from the league. (Okay, maybe not banishment. Well, probably not.)
14. 4 steps equals a travel. The textbook definition of “traveling violation” (i.e., 2 steps) is completely irrelevant in the modern NBA and everyone from coaches to players to media to fans knows it. The only “travel” usually associated with pro basketball at this point is the first-class jet ride from one major city to the next on a rodeo/Grammys/circus/insert-arena-conflict-here road trip. If a player doesn’t take a minimum of four steps, the referee is going to swallow his whistle and let the Eurostep/layup approach/Sportscenter-worthy move go with no turnover.
15. Don’t bother playing defense until… There are 2 variations to the “defense-optional” unwritten rule. The first is that playing defense isn’t really required until the last 5 minutes-or-so of an NBA game. After all, the game’s outcome will still usually be in doubt at that point. And players grinding through an 82-game marathon season with back-to-backs galore most definitely understand that defensive effort can be rationed and saved until it really matters at crunch time.
The second variation is that defense in the entire regular season is overrated. Watch a lockdown defender deny the ball or body up a post player in April and then ask yourself where that was in October or December or February. NBA players are capable of playing stifling defense. They just don’t usually bother to do so until it really matters.
16. Don’t make a game-deciding call unless it is PAINFULLY obvious. If there is a game on the line and the referee is considering single-handedly altering who gets the “W” and who gets the “L”, the violation better be PAINFULLY obvious. Otherwise history will tell the story of a referee, not the player. And nobody wants that.
If there’s only a slight amount of time left on the clock, figurative murder has to happen for a foul to be called. Hell, the wiggle room given to players and coaches as far as a technical foul is concerned is so massive that Rick Pitino can theoretically DDT an official. But he’d be given a free pass since it wasn’t a Rocker Dropper.
17. Any assessed charging call is voided if the defender is posterized. Sacrificing your body is a noble deed. Standing in front of a freight train barreling down the lane is not for the faint of heart. And anyone who is willing to risk sharp pain and embarrassment for the sake of the team is a man greater than I.
However, there is a time and place to take a charge or challenge an opponent at the rim. If you choose poorly, your shame will be forever be looped on the Internet. And in extreme cases, side effects may include having your last name become a derogatory verb (Mozgov’d).
Simply put: If you get dunked on, all offensive fouls are disregarded.
18. No technical fouls should be assessed for trash talk. Ever. If players are involved in a verbal skirmish, do NOT break it up. Let them settle their differences like men. Let them get in each other’s faces and hurl slurs at each other like B Rabbit standing in front of Papa Doc in 8 Mile. I understand that the NBA does not to promote hostility/violence. But if the NHL allows players to fight AND have referees stand there as observers while it happens, there is absolutely NO reason why basketball players can’t so much as get in each other’s faces without penalty.
19. No technical fouls should be assessed for emotional outbursts in the 4th quarter. Ever. (HEAVEN FORBID a player show emotion in the middle of a crucial game.) If it’s the NBA Finals, is a ref really going to influence history, potentially cost players millions in bonuses and take the trophy out of a team’s hands because some dude slammed a ball off the floor during a dead ball timeout or disagreed with his opinion?
Delaying the game or excessive insubordination is another thing. But we’re not tuning in to watch the officials influence games. (Hear that Joey Crawford? Ed Malloy? Nobody cares that your feelings got hurt. That’s what you signed up for when you applied to be an NBA official.) Let the players demonstrate their emotion.
20. Sliding under an airborne player trying to draw a charge should be a flagrant foul. We always talk about “dangerous acts” committed by defenders that result in flagrant fouls. Pushing someone in the back, blows to the head, elbow swinging, etc. But one of the most hazardous acts you can perform on the basketball court continues to fly under the radar and not receive the penalty it deserves. And that is sliding under an airborne player in attempt to draw a charge.
This is Course 101 from the Mike Krzyzewski school of flopping. Take advantage of a defenseless player and create a turnover. If done effectively, the airborne player’s legs will be cut out from underneath him and he will free-fall to the floor face-first. Even worse, if the legs are not cut out from underneath the airborne player, there is a high risk of landing on the defender now sprawled out on the floor and rolling an ankle, blowing a knee, hurting a leg, etc.
Nothing good has ever come from this. Ban it.
21. Weak foul calls should be saved until after the possession is complete. Occasionally offensive players get the foul call they’ve been begging for. However, they’re displeased with it. In layman’s terms: “NOW you call it!?”
When does this happen? Let’s say the offense is on a 2-on-1 fast break. After the attacking opposition crosses half court, the lone defender has about 2 counts to jump the passing lane, draw a charge, or foul before the player in possession begins his shooting motion.
High basketball IQ players (e.g., Chris Paul) accomplish a successful “take foul” almost every time. A split-second after the whistle is blown, the player in possession usually makes/misses a shot around the rim. If it’s a miss, the second member of the 2-on-1 puts back an easy uncontested rebound attempt. In this case, the referee has essentially stopped play and rewarded the defender for fouling by taking 2 easy points off the board.
It’s a smart play by the defense. But “smart fouling” is not sexy nor will it ever be.
22. If a player is crossed up/falls over, all traveling and carrying violations are null and void. Similar to getting dunked on, the other thing you can just absolutely NEVER do on a basketball court is fall over. It doesn’t matter whether you trip over a foot, step on a foot, or get stepped on. Under no circumstances is falling while defending a crossover permissible. Highlight truthers will argue the authenticity of the highlight until their death. But they’ll never get through to the thousands of fans now standing up and making a face like Samara from The Ring just sucked the soul out of them.
The NBA is better when ankles are being broken (maybe not literally but at the very least: figuratively). And if an opponent actually does fall, the refs should not have the authority to ruin the highlight by blowing the play dead because the culprit took an extra step over the fallen player’s corpse.
23. Fast-break take fouls aren’t punished harshly enough. The NBA took a huge step toward attracting a mainstream sports audience when they instituted the “clear path” violation. Why did they begin enforcing this? Because fans don’t pay all that money for tickets to watch Russell Westbrook get wrapped up at half court by some scrub when he was 3 seconds away from ripping the rim off the backboard and wearing it as a hat for the rest of the game.
While the “clear path” rule is certainly a step in the right direction, the NBA still struggles with enforcing “take fouls”. Essentially the same thing as “clear path” fouls but only penalized as a standard personal foul because an additional defender was either equal or ahead of the play.
Here’s the solution, Adam Silver, if you want the NBA to become as popular in the U.S. as the NFL is. Mainstream fans want dunks! Fans want to be wowed! Unleash the unfathomable athleticism of the league’s superstars. Enforce “take fouls” the same way you would enforce “clear path” fouls and watch the YouTube highlight chart hockey stick off the Excel spreadsheet.
248. If two blood rivals are facing each other one-on-one and both hit the button, let them make their own calls. Last but not least, there are times when an individual battle becomes more than basketball. It’s personal. It’s either you or him. Magic vs. Bird. Reggie Miller vs. John Starks. Westbrook vs. Durant.
When both parties involved agree to "hit the button" (a button which triggers Sidney Dean vs. Billy Hoyle White Men Can’t Jump-esque basketball Armageddon between 2 individuals), referees’ authority to enforce the rules of basketball should no longer exist. There’s going to be grabbing; pivot feet are going to slide; there’s going to be hand checks. It goes both ways when it’s war. Let it go. We want to see who the better man is.
You’re on notice, Adam Silver, make the NBA even better again.
How to decipher basketball’s unwritten rules
by Barry Jacobs
You could argue the off-ball incident proved pivotal in 2016's NBA Finals won by Cleveland after trailing 3 games to one.
Golden State’s Draymond Green and Cleveland’s LeBron James tangled at the edge of the Cavaliers’ mid-court logo during the waning minutes of Game 4 (an eventual Warrior win). Green fell, then scrambled to his feet. As he rose, James stepped over his head. Green responded with a swipe aimed between his opponent’s legs.
Already on notice that the League would punish him if he transgressed again, Green was retroactively assessed a flagrant foul and suspended for the following game. In Green’s absence, Cleveland began its rally to 3 straight victories and the title.
Warrior players complained James’ step-over was disrespectful, an intentionally provocative violation of basketball’s unwritten rules. TV’s Charles Barkley insisted Green had a “moral obligation” to retaliate. “You’re supposed to pop him in his 'junk' if he steps over you like that,” Barkley said with typical elegance.
These references to tacitly understood guidelines sparked a flurry of Internet discussion and inevitably raised a pressing question, even among close followers of basketball: What "unwritten rules"?
“I played baseball,” said Steve Donahue, the former Boston College basketball coach (2011-14) now at Penn. “There’s a ton of unwritten rules in Baseball.”
Attentive fans are acquainted with baseball’s boundaries from disdain for flipping a bat after hitting a home run to eschewing a bunt to break up a no-hitter. Written or not, a player defies these rules at their own peril. Inevitable consequences like knockdown pitches are traditional parts of the much-savored game within the game.
It’s about Respect
Basketball has its own host of unwritten rules, many immediately apparent upon a moment’s reflection according to Donahue and other coaches gathered at the Peach Jam prep all-star tournament earlier this month. That was not a universal view, however. Another contingent of college coaches ( many of them older) cited basic standards of basketball conduct rather than specific rules.
“I only know the rules that are written down,” said Miami’s Jim Larranaga.
Yet as a man attuned to nuance, he soon thought better of that declaration.
“I would say if you’re looking for one unwritten rule, I believe that it’s don’t disrespect the game. The game is about competition. If you abuse any aspect of the game, in my mind you’re disrespecting the game.”