After any stoppage in play, the ball must be thrown in from the out-of-bounds line to resume the game. But you can’t just grab the ball and throw it in from anywhere – there are a few rules to follow.
To start, let’s make sure everyone knows what it means to check the ball. All the offensive team needs to do is take the ball out of bounds, pass the ball to their defender, who then passes it back. That’s a check.
Here are the most common examples:
| What Happened? | Where to Throw the Ball In? | Do I Check the Ball? |
|---|---|---|
| Basket is scored | Baseline, underneath the hoop | No |
| Ball goes out of bounds | Sideline, on the side that the ball went out of play | Yes |
| Foul | Sideline, on the side of the court where the violation occurred | Yes |
| Start of second half | Sideline, near the center line | No |
Any time the offensive team is throwing the ball in in the frontcourt, they must check the ball with the defensive team. Remember that once an offensive team has possession in the frontcourt, the ball cannot be thrown into the backcourt (which would be an ‘over and back’). If they are throwing the ball in in the backcourt, they do not need to check the ball.
Now how do you determine if the ball should be thrown in from the frontcourt or the backcourt? It’s pretty simple. Unless a basket is scored or you are starting a new half (which is outlined above) the ball will always be thrown in on the same half in which the play was in action when the stoppage of play occurred.
And that’s that! Be sure to ‘check’ out our other Basketball headlines for more cool stuff!
