Olympic basketball is underway and this past weekend both the women and men’s USA teams took their first opponent without blinking. China who played the men’s team did stay neck to neck during the first period (which is half the game) but the second period Kobe, Labron, Kidd and teammates had worn down their opponents and dominated thusforth.

While watching the game, you may have noticed there were some things that did not follow the way the NBA regulates the games, so we decided to look into the differences between NBA basketball and Olympic basketball and share our findings here.

Olympic basketball is regulated by the International Federal Basketball Association (FIBA), and below are the differences:

1. The three point line is less of a distance from the basket than it is in the NBA with the NBA being 23′9″ from the rim and the FIBA being 20′6″.
2. The NBA players that commit six personal fouls are no longer able to play the game where in the FIBA it is only 5. A technical foul also counts towards the total number of fouls for the player.
3. The NBA has 4 time periods each of 12 minutes and the international rules play out only 2 time periods of 20 minutes each
4. The shot clock in the NBA is 24 seconds where in the Olympics it is 30 seconds
5. There will only be two time outs per team per half (period) and they last 1 minute so there are no 20 second time outs or TV timeouts. If the teams are tied at the end of the regular play then they play 5 minutes as in the NBA but with only 1 time out each.
6. In Olympic play, each team has 8 team fouls before going to to the line to shoot free throws compared to the six in NBA play.
7. The court is set up slightly different with the main differnce being the three point line and the lane set up being shaped more like a trapezoid. See here for a diagram. Like the NBA players will be in violation if they are in the lane for more than 3 seconds.

So now that you know the difference you might not be as confused during the next games. We are looking forward to the men’s game against Spain as we see them to be a reasonable opponent to the men  reclaiming the gold. For the women it should be a walk in a park. Check back as we keep you up to date on Olympic basketball action.

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