NATIONAL BASKETBALL COMMITTEE
of the UNITED STATES and CANADA

The following is a synopsis of the changes in the Basketball Rules which will go into effect in the season 1938-9,

1,

10.

End lines may be four feet, instead of two feet, behind the face of the backboards. This is an optional change for
those who desire to adopt it and whose courts will permit it.

For players below senior high school age the minimum circumference of the ball is to be 29 inches. For older
players the minimum circumference continues to be 2914 inches. The maximum circumference for all balls is to
be 30 inches instead of 3014 inches.

Substitutions are not to be permitted in the interval following a goal and putting the ball into play from out of
bounds unless a charged time-out or time-out for injury has been declared. It is still legal, however, for either
team to take a charged time-out after a goal.

By agreement between teams, or by league or conference ruling, games between teams above the high school age
may be played in quarters. The intermission between the first two quarters, the second two quarters, and prior
to each overtime period, is to be two minutes. This applies to all games which are played in quarters. By mutual
agreement, in games between teams of high school age and younger, an official’s time-out may be taken in the
second and fourth quarter provided there has not been a time-out for either team during the first four minutes of
that quarter. This time-out is to be taken the first time the ball is dead after four minutes have expired, and is to
be of two minutes duration.

In games between teams of high school age and younger, the “sudden death” method of deciding tie games is
to be applied to the first overtime period. The intermission prior to this period is to be two minutes, during
which teams may not leave the court. The first team to score two points in the first overtime period wins the
game. If neither team scores two points, but if one team has scored one point by the end of the three-minute
overtime period, that team wins the game. If neither team scores in the first overtime period, additional periods
may be played under the same conditions.

All jump balls must take place at least six feet from the nearest boundary line; that is, the jump ball rule applied
to the side-lines last year now applies also to the end-lines.

The rule which forbids a player to be in his free throw lane for more than three seconds is not to apply to a
player who is in the half of his free throw circle nearer the center provided he does not have possession of the
ball. In other words, a player without the ball may stand in the outer half of his free throw circle indefinitely,
but as soon as he gets the ball he is subject to the three-seconds rule. If he is touching the free throw line he is not
in the outer half of the circle.

All teams may take five charged time-out periods and they are to be notified by an official when they have taken
their fifth time-out. Additional time-outs may be taken at the expense of a technical foul for each time-out, and
these may be taken even though there is no injury or other emergency. Failure of an official to notify a team
that it has taken its fifth time-out does not prevent calling a foul if a sixth time-out is taken.

If a player in possession of the ball is touching or straddling the division line he is to be considered in the back
court regardless of the direction from which the ball comes to him. If he dribbles the ball from the back court,
the ten-seconds count continues as long as he is touching the floor on or behind the line. If he dribbles the
ball from the front court, he is considered to be in the back court as soon as he touches or straddles the line,
just as last year. If he receives a pass while touching or straddling the line, the foregoing applies in the same
way. Under this new ruling there is one fact to bear in mind: on the line ts in the back court.

If the ball is in the air on a try for goal when the signal sounds to end a period, subsequent touching of the ball
by a teammate of the thrower nullifies the goal; but if such touching is done by a defensive player, the goal
counts if made.

Prepared for the National Basketball Committee by Oswald Tower, Editor.
Andover, Massachusetts, April 25, 1938.