The primary objective of basketball is to score more points by putting the ball in opposition’s basket, which is placed ten feet above the ground. On completion of the game, the team that scores the most points wins. Recreational and high school games last thirty-two minutes, college and international games last forty minutes, women’s professional games last forty minutes, and men’s professional games last forty-eight minutes.

Referees on court are administers of the basketball rules. A basketball team consists of five players. A game begins with a ‘jump ball’ at the centre of the court, in which the referee tosses the ball high into the air and two players of each team line up in the middle of the court and try to direct the ball to one of their teammates.

As per basketball rules, the team that possesses the ball plays offense and the opposition plays defense, protecting their basket. The offensive team has a set time, usually thirty-five seconds to score by putting the ball through the opposition’s basket. The player possessing the ball cannot run or walk with the ball without dribbling (bouncing the ball against the ground). Once the player stops dribbling, the ball must be passed or shot, or it must be touched by another player before the original player can regain the ball.

According to basketball rules, there are two ways of scoring points; the first is to make a basket, which is worth 2 or 3 points, depending on the distance of the shot. The second way is to score a foul shot or free throw, which is awarded to a player when the opposition commits a personal foul or a technical foul. Possession of the ball alternates when the offense scores or when the defense is successful in gaining the ball. When the offense team misses a shot, the ball is free and all players have equal opportunity to retrieve the ball, which is called making a rebound.

Many will continue to watch, even if their team has been eliminated just for the drama and excitement. This leads to great highlights and marvelous basketball quotes.

Every year there seems to be a “Cinderella” team that the whole country cheers for. The atmosphere is wild and makes for some memorable moments.

Here are some of our favorite basketball quotes:

1) “We can’t win at home and we can’t win on the road. My problem as general manager is I can’t think of another place to play.” ~ Pat Williams

2) “The rule was “No autopsy, no foul.” ~ Stewart Granger

3) “When I dunk, I put something on it. I want the ball to hit the floor before I do.” ~ Darryl Dawkins

4) “The secret is to have eight great players and four others who will cheer like crazy.” ~ Jerry Tarkanian

5) “The invention of basketball was not an accident. It was developed to meet a need. Those boys simply would not play “Drop the Handkerchief.” ~ James Naismith

6) “Basketball is like war in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up.” ~ Red Auerbach

7) “If I weren’t earning $3 million a year to dunk a basketball, most people on the street would run in the other direction if they saw me coming.” ~ Charles Barkley
“If you are going to take it to the bank, then you better cash it in.” ~ Shannon Fish

9) “When it’s played the way is supposed to be played, basketball happens in the air; flying, floating, elevated above the floor, levitating the way oppressed peoples of this earth imagine themselves in their dreams.” ~ John Edgar Wideman

10) “It is most difficult, in my mind, to separate any success, whether it be in your profession, your family, or as in my case, in basketball, from religion.” ~ John Woodel

11) “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.” ~ Tim Duncan

12) “Sometimes a player’s greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team” ~ Scottie Pippen

13) “There are really only two plays: Romeo and Juliet, and put the darn ball in the basket.” ~ Abe Lemons

14) “Basketball is a game that gives you every chance to be great, and puts every pressure on you to prove that you haven’t got what it takes. It never takes away the chance, and it never eases up on the pressure.” ~ Coach Bob Sundvold

15) “My responsibility is getting all my players playing for the name on the front of the jersey, not the one on the back.” ~ Author Unknown

16) “The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.” ~ Bill Russell

17) “Basketball is the MTV of sports.” ~ Sara Levinson

18) “When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team.” ~ George Raveling

19) “You can run a lot of plays when your X is twice as big as the other guys’ O. It makes your X’s and O’s pretty good.” ~Paul Westphal

Hope you found a little humor in the basketball quotes. Go, cheer on your favorite team, and may the best team win!

As a coach, you need to understand the right timing and strategy for using a specific basketball play. This knowledge and expertise will make you value-added as a bench coach on the sideline and increase your team’s scoring opportunities during the game.

Knowing When and What Basketball Play to Call

To develop your basketball play calling skills and intuition, I believe you need to specialize in a limited number of proven basketball set plays. Offensive basketball plays that can be run from a variety of different offensive sets (1-4 set, 2-3 set, 1-2-2 set, 1-3-1 set, etc.) and used in a variety of different game situations (half-court offensive play, sideline out-of-bounds play, baseline under out-of-bounds play, etc.).

How will this knowledge and expertise in a core group of offensive plays help you and your team? From my experience, it made me a better teacher during practice. It limited the amount of valuable practice time I had to spend daily with my team repeating over and over our team’s offensive basketball plays and individual player assignments for each set play. During the game, it improved my team’s execution of the basketball set play called because my player’s had a complete knowledge and understanding of how to run the play properly and why the play called works.

But most of all, the knowledge and expertise in a core group of offensive plays gave me complete confidence in what I was doing as a bench coach during the game. Intuitively, I felt like I knew the right play to call at the right time to give my team a fighting chance!

Offensive Set Plays Basketball Playbook

All of our team’s core offensive basketball plays are included in the Championship Basketball Playbook. These high school basketball plays are “proven winners” and they will work for your team. You can photocopy all of the diagramed plays in the Championship Basketball Playbook and handout to the members of your team. This makes a great coaching tool for teaching youth basketball plays.

The formation of Pro basketball in 1896 came about from a dispute between YMCA team members and officials and ended in the members forming a professional team that played for money. In 1898, the NBL (National Basketball League) was formed and produced the first basketball stars – Ed Wachter and Barney Sedran.

The first two professional basketball teams to achieve success were the Buffalo Germans and the Celtics but during the 1930’s favorites included the New York Renaissance and the Harlem Globetrotters. During this time, womens basketball was also popular and produced great players such as Babe Didrikson and Alline Banks Sprouse.

In 1940, the first college basketball game was shown on TV. This game was played between Pittsburgh and Fordham at Madison Square Garden, and catapulted basketball into a national sensation. Since then basketball has been one of the most watched sports and in fact the March Madness, when almost 350 American colleges compete for the NCAA basketball crown is the most watched event in the United States.

In Pro basketball during the 1940’s and 50’s the Minneapolis Lakers were a huge favorite of many winning 5 NBA championship titles and producing starts like Bob Cousy and Bob Pettit. But during the late 1950’s up until 1969, the Celtics had the court winning 11 NBA titles (8 f them right in a row). During this era favorite players included Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlin of the Philadelphia Warriors.

During 1963 to 1975 The University of California, Los Angeles was in the spotlight winning 10 national championships, including seven in a row. Some of the great players of this UCLA team include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jamaal Wilkes, Bill Walton, Gail Goodrich and Marques Johnson.

In 1967 the American Basketball Association (ABA) was formed and many will remember one of the satart players Julius Erving as well as their red white and blue basketballs. The ABA only lasted until 1976 when it broke up and many of the teams joined the NBA.

In the 1960’s, womens basketball introduced the 5 player full court format and made dribbling fully legal but it wasn’t until 1985 that the Basketball Hall of Fame began inducting woman coaches and players. Some of the first women to get this honor include Carol Blazejowski, Ann Meyers, Cheryl Miller; Nancy Lieberman-Cline and Anne Donovan.

In the late 1970’s start players like Larry Bird of Indiana State University and Michigan State Universities Magic Johnson emerged and the late 1980s saw such major players as Isiah Thomas and Dennis Rodman. But perhaps the most beloved player of all is Michael Jordan who led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships in the 1990s.

Basketball betting has become increasingly common with the advent of Internet betting. At the click of a mouse, gamblers worldwide are making money by betting in record numbers.

Betting has caught up fast because it gives novice or seasoned gamblers the chance to earn money in addition to enjoying the game on television. And what’s more, these gamblers have 100 games or options to choose from for betting. One can bet on half-quarter of a game or point spread or spread full game. There are around 30 National Basketball Association teams and around 200 college basketball teams. Such betting is pretty frequent and happens every week during the basketball season.

NBA was founded in 1946 and is the foremost and leading sports league in North America. NBA season normally lasts from late October to the month of June. The best way to bet in such seasons is not to give over weightage to any team. Being a pretty long season, there can be inconsistency among the best players and who knows the worst team may end up showing a winning streak!

NBA basketball betting can be lucrative if proper homework and analysis is done around the game. People usually go for basketball betting because it comprises a week’s action unlike a football game, which lasts for two days of action, Saturdays and Sundays.

Many players thrive on competition and it’s a great way to get them excited and playing hard. Without the competitive aspect, players can become bored and lose both focus and motivation. Adding a competitive flavor to a basketball drill can make it much more effective because kids will generally work harder and become more focused to master the drill.

It’s easy to add competition to a drill. For example:

• When running a basketball shooting drill, you can keep track of made baskets and award the winner.

• You can add special rules like 2 points for charges, 1 point for ball deflections, and 2 points for steals.

• You can award “permissions” every time you notice a kid working extra hard or doing a great job with the drill. You can then award three or four kids with the most “permissions” at the end of practice.

• You can award teams that do not drop a single pass during the entire drill.

• Agility drills can become competitions between groups of players with the fastest team, which maintains good form, getting to choose the next drill

Tip #2 – Don’t forget your “points of emphasis”.

In the midst of practice, it is easy to forget important points; the things that you want to watch closely during your drills to make sure your players are performing correctly. However, without your points of emphasis fresh on your mind at all times, it’s easy to lose focus on all of the things you need to remember. To help yourself remember, create a cheat sheet for everyone single drill that you run. I personally have a “points of emphasis” section on every practice plan.

Points of emphasis on a ball dribbling drill might be something like:

• Look up while dribbling… Don’t look at the ball!

• Always protect the ball with your free hand.

• Stay low and keep your knees bent so you can explode past the imaginary defender. (Staying low helps improve your quickness.)

• Strive to go at full game speed. But at first go at a pace that is comfortable for you – with time, you will get better.

• Make sure you are not palming the ball.

• Imagine a defender in front of you at every station. It’s too easy to forget the fundamentals of each skill, and to forget to emphasize them, if you don’t write them down.

Tip #3 – Encourage good habits.

Don’t allow your players to run drills without supervision. Walking away, even if it’s to prepare for the next drill, allows players to develop bad habits and bad form.

For example, when running a shooting drill, make sure each player has their knees bent when they catch the ball. Make sure that they pivot correctly, square their feet to the basket, and take the time to hold their follow through.

When running a rebounding drill, make sure that they keep their elbows out after grabbing the ball. Make sure that they grab the ball with two hands, block out and always get good positioning for a rebound. Your players will no doubt slide if you don’t watch them closely and correct their slippage at all times.

You run drills to develop good basketball habits. However, it’s impossible for your players to develop good habits if you aren’t paying close attention to their performance.

Tip #4 – Variety is the spice of…practice!

Break the drills up during practice. Players generally lose focus after working on the same thing over and over again.

Add some variety to each practice. It will not only keep them on their toes, it will keep the practice more interesting for them and you.

For example, you could do 10 minutes of shooting drills and then change things up to a competitive rebounding drill that they enjoy, and then switch gears to run a defensive drill.

Tip #5 – Remember that simpler is sometimes better.

Often times the simple drills that have been around forever are the best ones.

Don’t forget those simple drills or overlook them just because they are simple. They are often the most effective.

Simple drills can allow your players to focus on the smaller aspects of a skill, which can often lead to big improvements in a players overall skill and performance.

Running a basketball practice is full of ups-and-downs and struggles to motivate your players shouldn’t be your biggest challenge. By employing these five tips, your practices can run more smoothly and you’ll see the kind of improvement in your players that you know they’re capable of.