Foul (basketball)

In basketball, a foul is an infraction of the rules more serious than a violation. 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:

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. 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.

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.

A flagrant foul is violent player contact that the official believes is not a legitimate attempt to directly play the ball within the rules.

A technical foul is a foul unrelated to physical contact during game play. 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:

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.

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.

An overview of the accounting of fouls (to individual players and to their team) is at Personal foul. Detailed parameters, for FIBA, the NBA, and college basketball, are at Bonus.

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