Preface

About the Setting

The Basketball Game | The NCAA | The NBA | Dancers | Big Names

The Basketball Game - Introduction for the clueless:

Each team has five players (and many bench players). In general, they are:

• Center: is a big and tall guy to control the area underneath the basket.

• Power Forward: another big guy, usually smaller than the center, helps control the basket, painted area, and rebounds, as well as shooting

• Small Forward: good in shooting and scoring, see below

• Shooting Guard: good in shooting and scoring.
  Often there is no clear distinction between a small forward and a shooting guard, and many players who play one position well can also do an excellent job at the other position. These players who can play both positions well are often called Swingman. (Tim Fowl, the guy who beats Rick's teams over and over, is a Swingman.) Most small forwards are about 6'6 and up in the NBA. You will see shooting guards of any height (from nearly 7' down to just 6' tall).

• Point Guard: he commands offensive plays. Some point guards don't shoot a lot, while some will score half of the team's points. Usually the point guard is the smallest guy in the court. Richard Hart is a point guard (the shortest point guard in NBA is Earl Boykins who is only 5'5).

You don't have to have all five positions on the court. You can send any five players out, actually you can send less than five. You can have a team with all small players, and of course you'll lose the height advantage and can't secure the basket and the paint (the area around the basket is painted), but you may be moving much faster. It depends on strategy and what you have.

Height is not the only, and actually not often, the key to win a basketball game. The game is about many factors: speed, height, strength, agility, accuracy, mobility, team work, strategy, psychological determination to win, and much more. Since it's impossible for a player to play every minute in a game consistantly (especially given the schedule of the games), bench players always play a critical role in the games.

You get 2 points when you put the ball into the basket. You get 3 when you throw the ball from behind a painted 3-point line (often refered to as: from behind the arc, from downtown). You get one point when you hit a free throw (standing at the free throw line, thus often called "from the line").

Lay-up: A player below the basket throws the ball up above the basket for it to drop into the basket. This is in contrast to rising up above the basket and hit (or drop) the ball into the basket which is called dunk or slam dunk. Lay-ups are often done by smaller players while dunks are carried out by by taller players or players who can fly high (the rim of the basket is 10 feet from the floor).

Alley-Opp (pass): When a player throws the ball to the basket, and another player catches the ball above (or near) the basket, and puts it into the basket (often forcefully - slam dunk or dunk) while still in the air.

Double-double: Officially means a player registers double digit figures in both scoring and rebounds in a game. In rarer situations can also mean double digit figures in either two of the three catagories of scoring, rebounds, or assists.

Triple-double: A player registers double digit figures in all three catagories: scoring, rebounds, and assists in a game. This is a very difficult statistic to register, because small players usually can't get many rebounds, and big players rarely can dish out many assists. Jason Kidd, one of the very best point guards in recent history, and often referred to being "Triple-double wating to happen", has made 66 triple doubles in his 11 years of NBA career so far. Most good or even great players don't make one triple-double in an entire year.

Charge: An offensive foul when the offensive player bumps into a defensive player while the defensive player is stationary. There are many fine rules about when exactly is it a charge, and when is it a defensive violation. In reality, a small player always has the advantage when he bumps into a big fellow, because he'll likely fall from the impact. A big and powerful guy like Shaquille O'Neal usually has the disadvantage because he can easily knock down a smaller player with just a soft touch (and players are good actors).

3-point Play: This does not mean shooting a 3-pointer. It's when a player is fouled during his attempt to make a basket. The basket will be counted if the ball goes in, and he'll have a chance to shoot a free throw. If he makes the free throw, it becomes a 3-point play. If the ball doesn't go in, he will shoot two free throws. Similarly, it will be a 4-point play when a player is fouled while attempting to shoot a 3-pointer. It's considered a stupid foul to hack a player attempting a 3-pointer, because making a 3-point shot is harder than making 3 free throws, and a 4-point play hurts the morale of the fouling team.

The NCAA

The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) governs and organizes various college level sports events in the USA. The most prominant ones are of course basketball and (American) football. Scouts and agents from the NBA will look for future stars from outstanding players in the NCAA tournaments. An outstanding NCAA basketball player generally means a future NBA player, which means a future millionaire even if he just plays professional games for a year.

Colleges tend to give generous scholarships and other perks to outstanding high school players (doesn't matter if they can spell their names) for them to attend their colleges. NCAA championship games (mainly in these two ball games) bring great honor, exposure, and financial benefits to the schools. It's not uncommon for a college basketball/football headcoach to make 10 times the money a senior professors does.