What are the dimensions of a standard (FIBA) basketball court?

According to the rules of FIBA (Fédération Internationale de Basketball), the international governing body of basketball, a standard basketball court is 28 metres long and 15 metres wide, measured from the inner edges of the boundary lines.

Other important measurements in basketball:

• The ring (basket) is fixed 3.05 m (10 feet) above the floor.
• The inner diameter of the ring is 45 cm, and the backboard is 1.80 m wide and 1.05 m high.
• The three-point line is 6.75 m from the centre of the basket (FIBA); in the NBA it is 7.24 m (23 feet 9 inches) at the top of the arc.
• The free-throw line is 5.80 m from the inside edge of the end line.
• The ball for men is size 7 (circumference about 75 cm).
• In the American NBA (National Basketball Association), the court is slightly larger: 94 feet x 50 feet (about 28.65 m x 15.24 m).

Basic rules:

• Each team has 5 players on the court and up to 7 substitutes.
• A FIBA match has four quarters of 10 minutes each; NBA quarters are 12 minutes.
• A field goal is worth 2 points, or 3 points from beyond the three-point line; a free throw is worth 1 point.

Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, using peach baskets as goals. It became an Olympic sport in 1936 (Berlin).

Why not the other options?

• ✗30 m x 18 m is not a standard basketball measurement.
• ✗24 m x 12 m is too small for a regulation court.
• ✗26 m x 14 m was an older permitted variation before FIBA fixed the size at 28 m x 15 m.