Foul (basketball)
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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 ...
, a foul is an infraction of the rules more serious than a
violation Violation or violations may refer to: * Violation (basketball), the most minor class of an illegal action in basketball * ''Violation'' (album), a 1977 album by American hard rock band Starz * ''Violation'' (film), a 2020 Canadian horror film * ...
. Most fouls occur as a result of illegal personal contact with an opponent and/or unsportsmanlike behavior. Fouls can result in one or more of the following penalties: *The team whose player committed the foul loses possession of the ball to the other team. *The fouled player is awarded one or more free throws. *The player committing the foul "fouls out" of the game. *The player committing the foul is suspended from some number of subsequent games. Some of the penalties listed above are assessed only if a player or a team commits a number of fouls above a specified limit. Ordinary fouls are routine because of the constant motion inherent in the sport and are not viewed as bad
sportsmanship Sportsmanship is an aspiration or ethos that a sport, or activity will be enjoyed for its own sake. This is with proper consideration for fairness, ethics, respect, and a sense of fellowship with one's competitors. A "sore loser" refers to o ...
. The penalty imposes a cost on violating the rules but does not disparage the player committing the foul. A player intending never to commit a foul might play so cautiously as to be ineffective. More serious fouls are regarded as bad sportsmanship, and the penalties are designed to be disciplinary. There are several classes of foul, each enumerated below and covered in greater detail in its own article.


Classes


Personal

A personal foul is the most common type of foul. It results from personal contact between two opposing players. Basketball features constant motion, and contact between opposing players is unavoidable, but significant contact that is the fault of illegal conduct by one opponent is a foul against that player. Most personal fouls are called against a defensive player. A personal foul that is committed by a player of the team in possession of the ball is called an offensive foul. When neither team is in clear possession of the ball, a foul is called a loose-ball foul.


Flagrant

A flagrant foul is violent player contact that the official believes is not a legitimate attempt to directly play the ball within the rules. *The NBA and NCAA men's competitions define a Flagrant-1 foul as unnecessary contact, and two such penalties leads to ejection of the player. A Flagrant-2 foul is contact that is both unnecessary and excessive, and requires ejection. In 2019, the NCAA added more words to describe this scenario, including brutal, harsh or cruel or dangerous or punishing. *FIBA and NCAA women's competitions penalize excessive or unjustified contact between opponents. Their terms for the respective levels of foul are an unsportsmanlike foul and a disqualifying foul.


Technical

A technical foul is a foul unrelated to physical contact during gameplay. The foul may be called on a player in the game, another player, a coach, or against the team in general. This class of foul applies to all of the following: *Unsportsmanlike conduct outside the scope of the game, such as taunting, profanity, using offensive racial slurs, or conduct toward an official. *A personal foul committed by a player who has fouled out of the game but is readmitted to the game because of the lack of substitutes. * Breaking the backboard by performing an excessive
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 ...
. *Requesting a timeout when the team has already used their last allotted timeout. *Illegal gamesmanship, such as delay of game. *A variety of other situations, such as arranging the players in an illegal defense. In the last two cases, the rules may call for the referee to give a warning rather than assess a technical foul on the first infraction.


Player and team

A player foul is any foul, but typically personal and flagrant fouls, by reference to the count of fouls charged against a given player. A team foul is any foul by reference to the count against a given team.


Bonus situation

The bonus (or penalty) situation occurs when one team accumulates a requisite number of fouls. When one team has committed the requisite number of fouls, each subsequent foul results in the opposing team's taking free throws regardless of the type of foul committed.


Coach's challenge

Beginning in the 2019–20 season, the NBA introduced the "coach's challenge" rule, allowing teams one challenge per game. Teams may only challenge personal foul calls on its own players, and out-of-bounds and goaltending/basket interference calls during the first 46 minutes of the game and first 3 minutes of overtime play. Teams must call a legal
timeout Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to: Time * Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team * Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken * Timeout (computing), an enginee ...
to challenge a call, which will be returned if the challenge is successful. When a call is challenged,
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 ...
footage is reviewed by game officials to determine whether the call should be overturned. Teams may only challenge once per game regardless of whether the challenge was successful. Starting in the 2021–22 season, coaches in the Euroleague and EuroCup Basketball are given one challenge per game. On October 1, 2022, FIBA published a revision of its official rules of basketball adding a "head coach challenge". Similar to the NBA and Euroleague, each coach is given one challenge per game.


References


External links


Official Basketball Rules 2018 (PDF); FIBAThe NBA "officiating" page contains the entire rulebook (PDF) and summaries of misunderstood rules and recent changes.
{{Basketball statistics Basketball statistics Basketball penalties es:Falta personal fr:Faute personnelle (basket-ball) it:Fallo personale ja:ファウル (バスケットボール) pl:Błędy w koszykówce#Faule