A backboard is a piece of

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

equipment. It is a raised vertical board with an attached basket consisting of a net suspended from a hoop. It is made of a flat, rigid piece of, often

Plexiglas Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite ...

tempered glass Tempered or toughened glass is a type of safety glass processed by controlled thermal or chemical treatments to increase its strength compared with normal glass. Tempering puts the outer surfaces into compression and the interior into tensi ...

which also has the properties of

safety glass Safety glass is glass with additional safety features that make it less likely to break, or less likely to pose a threat when broken. Common designs include toughened glass (also known as tempered glass), laminated glass, and wire mesh glass ...

when accidentally shattered. It is usually

rectangular In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90°); or a parallelogram containin ...

as used in NBA,

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

and international basketball. In recreational environments, a backboard may be

oval An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one ...

or a fan-shape, particularly in non-professional games. The top of the hoop is above the ground. Regulation backboards are wide by tall. All basketball rims (hoops) are in diameter. The inner rectangle on the backboard is wide by tall, and helps a shooter determine the proper aim and banking for either a

layup A layup in basketball is a two-point shot attempt made by leaping from below, laying the ball up near the basket, and using one hand to bounce it off the backboard and into the basket. The motion and one-handed reach distinguish it from a jump s ...

or distance shot. In addition to those markings and those of its manufacturer, leagues and governing bodies often place other decals on the edge of the backboard on the glass, including the logo of the league or organization, and a national flag. On top of the backboard, a league or team's web address or sponsor logo is affixed to take advantage of the high television camera angle utilized for

instant replay Instant replay or action replay is a video reproduction of something that recently occurred which was both shot and broadcast live. The video, having already been shown live, is replayed in order for viewers to see again and analyze what had j ...

slam dunk A slam dunk, also simply known as dunk, is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air, controls the ball above the horizontal plane of the rim, and scores by shoving the ball directly through the basket with one ...

s and other shots above the rim. In professional and most higher college settings, the backboard is part of a portable wheeled stanchion that can be moved out of the way and stored to allow the venue to host multiple other sports and events, though in most high schools and examples such as Stanford University's

Maples Pavilion Maples Pavilion is a 7,392-seat multi-purpose arena on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California. Opened in 1969, Maples underwent a United States dollar, $30 million renovation in March 2004 and reopened ahead of schedule, in tim ...

, backboards are mounted as part of a suspended system using the venue's ceiling joists to support the goal and allow them to be put out of the way in the ceiling support system via a system of pulleys when not in use, along with the more common wall-mounted system. Practice or

gym class Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

-utilized sideline backboards are generally of the permanently wall-mounted variety, and usually have opaque

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

or thick metal boards instead, along with most outdoor

municipal park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to re ...

boards. In intervening years, the portable stanchion containing the backboard has also taken on cabling and sensors within its core, along with the structure of a game clock and

shot clock A shot clock is a countdown timer used in a variety of games and sports, proving a set amount of time that a team may possess the object of play before attempting to score a goal. Shot clocks are used in several sports including basketball, wat ...

above it, which makes the setup of one as involved as an arena's basketball floor, to the point of requiring a replacement backboard being on standby if it and/or the rim is ever taken out of level or broken. The first glass backboard was used by the

Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball The Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team represents Indiana University Bloomington in NCAA Division I college basketball and competes in the Big Ten Conference. The Hoosiers play at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on the Branch McCracken Court in ...

team at the Men's Gymnasium at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

. After the first few games at their new facility in 1917, spectators complained that they could not see the game because of opaque wooden backboards. As a result the Nurre Mirror Plate Company in Bloomington was employed to create new backboards that contained plate glass so that fans could see games without an obstructed view. It was the first facility in the country to use glass backboards. Professional glass backboards used to break from of force or more. Modern professional and higher-level college play backboards do not have the glass absorbing any weight to avoid breaking the glass and backboard as a whole.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Backboard Basketball equipment