Wheelchair basketball players and playing area
Playing area
Wheelchair basketball retains most of the major rules and scoring of basketball, and maintains a 10-foot basketball hoop and standard basketball court, usually made of highly polished hardwood. Basketball courts may come in different sizes - an official NBA (National Basketball Association) court is measured at 28.7 m (94 ft) long and 15.2 m (50 ft) wide, while amateur and youth court sizes vary.
Other than the size, these courts are not required to be adapted for players.
Although the court has no definite size, the markings are very precise:
- The baseline - this is the end line of a basketball court.
- The free throw line 鈥 this line marks the end of a 3.7 m (12 ft) wide and 4.9 m (16 ft) long rectangle. However, at all other levels the line is only 4.6 m (15 ft) long.
- The basket - the basket hoop is measured exactly 0.5 m (18 in) in diameter and hangs 3m (10 ft) above the ground. The hoop is mounted to a backboard 鈥 this is used by the players to deflect the ball into the net.
- Sideline - this line marks the court out both sides.
- The three-point line - the three-point line was moved back to 7.2 m (23 ft 9 in) for the NBA 1997-1998 season. However, for schools, the distance is 6 m (19 ft 9 in), and for international games it is 6.2 m (20 ft 6 in).
Players
A wheelchair basketball competition team consists of five players per side and is open to athletes with a permanent physical impairment in the lower limb(s), which can be objectively verified. It embraces a wide range of disabilities including paraplegia, spina bifida, lower limb amputations, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis. Not all players are daily wheelchair users and can include players with walking difficulties.
The wheelchair basketball classification system is based on the players' functional capacity to complete the skills necessary to play - pushing, pivoting, shooting, rebounding, dribbling, passing and catching. Players are classified by a points system from 1 to 4.5 鈥 1, 2, 3 and 4 are the recognised classes, with 0.5 classes between for the exceptional cases which do not fit exactly into one class. The 4.5 category represents those with the least physical impairment such as a lower limb permanent injury.
The total number of points allowed on court at any one time is 14. That is, the total number of points of all five players actually playing on court at any one time.