The basic idea of basketball is to get the ball up the court and into the opposing teams basket, and to stop the opposing team from scoring in your basket. There are two ways of scoring points in basketball, the first is scoring a 2 pointer. You get two points if you score from within the arc (or the 3 point line), the next is a 3 pointer, if you score from outside the arc you get 3 points. Then you get one point for each penalty sho you make.

You cannot pick up the ball and run, you must bounce (dribble) the ball with one hand at a time.
There are 10 people on the court at a time, which makes 5 on each team. It is played on an indoor, wooden court when playing competition basketball, but you can also find outdoor, concrete basketball courts around the place like schools, parks etc.

This is what a typical basketball court looks like:

There are several levels at which you can play basketball.

Club/association level

If you are just playing it for some exercise and because you like the sport, then you would probably play at club level. There are associations that you can find in various places and sign up in a team and verse other teams in the competition. This is the first step before you can go onto the more advanced levels of basketball.

Representative Level

Most basketball associations will have a representative side in each age group. They hold tryouts before the rep season starts at their association couts, they will generally pick one or more teams per age group. At this stage, it's generally the more serious people who play rep basketball.

NSW Country (NSW only, state basketball)

NSW country is where you verse people from all around NSW. Representative basketball is not required for this, as teams are picked the same way as rep teams are. You have to be very good to get into this, it is for people who have their soul interest as basketball, and train everyday. It requires alot of commitment. Again teams are picked in each age group.

National Basketball (youth)

This is the serious stuff. There is generally only one team per State. People who play at national level generally do a bit of travelling with the team, throughout the country and possibly overseas.

THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN PLAYING BASKETBALL

• When you are dribbling the ball, only use one hand at a time.
• Don't pass back over the half way line.
• If you pick up the ball after you have been dribbling it, don't start dribbling it again, get rid of it.
• If someone passes the ball back to you and you have one foot in each half, give up, it's a cross court.
• It's only 2 steps allowed with the ball in your hand, after that you either shoot or pass it.
• You can only have the ball in the opposing teams key for 3 seconds at a time.

The things mentioned above are some of the most commonly made mistakes in the game, don't let it be you!

I have only covered the basics of what basketball is on this page, there is so much more to learn, such as all the rules and techniques. I have only "scratched the surface".