FIBA is the International Basketball Federation (the abbreviation is derived from the French name) and it governs world basketball, uniting every country’s local basketball association in a common hub. Any international basketball event is related to FIBA, one way or another, and follows its rules. That is not the case of the United States leagues. The NBA is known for a much more athletic, dynamic, offensive and entertaining game style, whereas in European basketball teamwork, defense and well-planned actions are much more effective.
Obviously, we are still talking about the same sport, but there have been cases of American-bred players who were surprised when – in Europe – traveling was called against them or when they were not granted the time out they requested when overwhelmed in the court. Let us take a look at only some of the most frequently mixed-up rules. The exact details can be found in the official descriptions of the FIBA and NBA official regulations.
Game Time, Court Layout and Generalities
First of all, the length of the game itself is different. While an NBA basketball game has four quarters of 12 minutes each, in a FIBA game the quarters are only of 10 minutes each. The occasional overtime periods are of 5 minutes in both cases. The number of allowed fouls/player is proportional to the game time: a player is disqualified from an NBA game only after six personal fouls are called against him. In FIBA they are out after five fouls.
