NBA Jump Ball Rules: Tip-Offs, Held Balls and Violations

There is no arrow on the scorer's table at an NBA game. College arenas have one, a lit pointer that flips after every tie-up and tells everyone who gets the ball next. High school gyms have one. So do the Olympics. The NBA has never used it, which means that when two professionals wrestle over a ball and neither will let go, an official still takes it from them, walks to the nearest circle and throws it in the air.

Under NBA Rule 6, a jump ball is used on three kinds of occasion: to start the game, to start every overtime period, and to settle every held ball and a handful of similar stalemates during play. The two players who tied the ball up must be the ones who jump. Each may tap the toss, at most twice, only after it has reached its highest point, and neither may catch it until it has touched someone or something else. A violation gives the ball to the other team out of bounds. The opening tip also fixes who starts each later quarter: the team that loses it gets the ball to begin the second and third, and the team that wins it gets the fourth.

When the NBA tosses the ball up: the tip, every overtime and every held ball

The rulebook's first line on the subject is short. "The game and overtimes shall be started with a jump ball in the center circle." Its next sentence takes the jump ball away from the three other quarters, which begin with a throw-in from the endline.

So a routine NBA game with no tie-ups contains exactly one jump ball. A game that goes to double overtime contains at least three. Everything beyond that comes from play: a held ball, a ball that goes out of bounds off two opponents at once, a ball stuck on the rim, and a short list of double infractions.

Rule 6 sorts all of these by location.

Situation	Where the jump is held	Who jumps
Start of the game	Center circle	Any two opponents
Start of each overtime	Center circle	Any two opponents
Held ball	Nearest of the three circles	The two players involved
Ball out of bounds off both teams, or officials unsure who touched it last	Nearest of the three circles	The two players involved
Ball lodged between rim and backboard, or resting on the flange	Center circle	Any two opponents
Double free throw violation, or a double foul on a loose ball	Center circle	Any two opponents

The three circles are the one at center court and the two free throw circles. Nothing is tossed up at the spot where the ball was tied; the players walk to a circle.

• 3Circles on the court where a jump can be held
• 8Players who must wait outside the circle
• 2Taps allowed to each jumper
• 1Jump balls guaranteed in a regulation game

Counts taken from Rule 6 of the NBA rulebook. The eight are the players on the floor who are not jumping, and the two taps are the limit for each jumper on any one toss.

That the league still does this is a choice, and a slightly old-fashioned one. The NBA has kept the jump on the view that a ball two players have fought to a draw should be contested again and not handed out by rota.

What makes a held ball, and why the same two players must jump

Rule 4 defines it. "A held ball occurs when two opponents have one or both hands firmly on the ball." The word that does the work is firmly. A defender who gets a hand on the ball as an opponent pulls it away has not created a held ball. Two players each with a grip the other cannot break have.

The definition goes on to tell officials not to rush. A held ball "should not be called until both players have hands so firmly on the ball that neither can gain sole possession without undue roughness." That is a patience clause. The official is supposed to let the struggle run for a beat, because one player often rips the ball free, and to stop it only when continuing would mean somebody getting hurt or fouled. Quick whistles on tie-ups annoy coaches for this reason: the player who was about to win the ball outright gets a coin flip instead.

The blocked shot that becomes a jump ball

A second kind of held ball involves no wrestling. The rule covers the case "when a defensive player touches the ball causing the offensive player to return to the floor with the ball in his continuous possession which would result in a traveling violation."

Picture a shooter rising for a jumper. A defender gets a palm on the ball and keeps it there, the shooter cannot release it, and he comes back down still holding it. Landing with the ball after leaving the floor would ordinarily be a travel. Because the defender caused it, the rulebook calls it a held ball and sends both men to a circle. The same reasoning protects a driver who is stuffed at the rim and lands with the ball pinned between his hands and a defender's. The ordinary limits on footwork are in our explainer on the traveling rule and the gather step.

A player on the floor

One more sentence in the definition: if a player is lying or sitting on the floor with the ball, "he should have an opportunity to throw the ball." A defender who dives on top of him and gets two hands on it can earn a held ball, but the official is meant to give the man on the ground a moment to pass first.

Why there is no choosing

Section VI of Rule 6 says the jump "shall be between the two involved players." The involved players are the ones whose hands were on the ball. A coach may not send his center to the circle in place of the point guard who made the steal attempt.

The toss goes to "the circle which is closest to the spot" of the held ball. A tie-up in the corner near one basket is jumped at that end's free throw circle, straight in front of the basket, and winning or losing it there is worth a great deal more than at midcourt.

The toss itself: half a circle each, two taps, and no catching

A jump ball has more rules packed into two seconds than almost anything else in the sport. Rule 6, Section VII is titled "Restrictions Governing Jump Balls," and nearly every sentence in it is a prohibition.

1. 1SetupEach jumper stands with at least one foot in his own half of the circle and both feet inside the larger restraining circle. The other eight players stand outside it.
2. 2TossAn official throws the ball straight up between the jumpers, higher than either can reach.
3. 3PeakNeither jumper may touch the ball on its way up. It must reach its highest point first.
4. 4TapOne or both jumpers tap the ball. Each may tap it no more than twice, and neither may catch it.
5. 5ReleaseOnce the ball is tapped, the eight non-jumpers may enter the circle and the jumpers may leave their halves.
6. 6PossessionThe ball touches a non-jumper, the floor, the basket or the backboard. From then on anyone, a jumper included, may catch it.

The order of events under Rule 6, Section VII of the NBA rulebook. The game clock starts on the legal tap; the shot clock waits until a team has possession.

Where the jumpers stand

"Each jumper must have at least one foot on or inside that half of the jumping circle which is farthest from his own basket." In NBA usage a team's own basket is the one it shoots at, so each jumper sets up in the half nearer the basket he is defending and faces the one he is attacking. Both feet must be inside the restraining circle, the full 12-foot ring.

Lining up the wrong way round is rare and not unknown. The rulebook's section on correcting errors deals with it: if the mistake is caught within 24 seconds, play is wiped out and the jump is redone with the players facing properly; after that, the teams keep shooting at the baskets they started toward for the rest of the half.

The peak

The ball "must be tapped by one or both of the players participating in the jump ball after it reaches its highest point." Touching it on the way up is the violation fans call stealing the tip, and it is tempting, because the jumper who goes a fraction early gets there first. Officials counter by tossing the ball well above both players' reach, so that it has to be coming down before anyone can touch it.

If the toss comes down untouched by either jumper and hits the floor, nothing is lost. An official whistles it dead and tosses again.

Tap, not catch

"Neither jumper may catch the tossed or tapped ball until it touches one of the eight non-jumpers, the floor, the basket, or the backboard." The jump is meant to direct the ball to a teammate. A jumper who plucks the toss out of the air has broken the rule.

Each jumper gets two taps. That allowance lets a jumper who gets a fingertip on the ball tip it a second time toward a teammate, or keep it from an opponent. A third touch before the ball has hit someone or something else is a violation. A jumper can tap the ball to the floor and then pick it up himself, which is legal and occasionally the smart play when no teammate is open.

Staying put

Neither jumper may leave his half of the circle until the ball has been tapped. He may not, in other words, jump across into his opponent or drift backward to chase his own tip before it is made.

Where the other eight stand, and when they may move

The eight non-jumpers "will remain outside the restraining circle until the ball has been tapped." The instant a hand touches the toss, the circle opens and all eight may move in any direction.

Until then there is a quiet contest for places around the ring, and the rulebook referees it with three provisions.

First, teammates "may not occupy adjacent positions around the restraining circle if an opponent desires one of the positions." A team cannot line three of its players shoulder to shoulder on one arc and turn that side into a wall. If an opponent wants the spot between two teammates, he is entitled to it. In practice players alternate around the circle, one from each team.

Second, "No player may position himself immediately behind an opponent on the restraining circle." Standing directly on a man's back to shove him forward at the tap is not allowed. A player may stand off the circle, deeper toward his own basket as a safety against a long tip, and most teams keep one or two there.

Third, the order of choosing. "Player position on the restraining circle is determined by the direction of a player's basket. The player whose basket is nearest shall have first choice of position, with positions being alternated thereafter." On a jump at a free throw circle, that gives first pick to the team shooting at that end.

How teams use the eight spots

A team that expects to win the tap puts its ball handler where its jumper likes to send the ball, usually behind him toward the backcourt, since a ball tapped backward to a waiting guard is the safest outcome. A team that expects to lose it does the opposite: it crowds the spots where the other jumper tends to tip and plays for a steal.

The backcourt rule is suspended for all of this. Rule 10 states that during a jump ball "the ball is not in control of either team," so a ball tapped from the frontcourt side of center into the backcourt can be recovered there by a teammate of the tapper without an over-and-back violation.

Jump ball violations and their price

Rule 10, Section V makes it a violation to break any of the restrictions, and the penalty paragraph in Rule 6 names five of them together.

Violation	Who can commit it	Penalty
Tapping the toss before it reaches its highest point	A jumper	Ball to the opponent out of bounds
Leaving his half of the circle before the tap	A jumper	Ball to the opponent out of bounds
Catching the ball before it touches a non-jumper, the floor, the basket or the backboard	A jumper	Ball to the opponent out of bounds
Tapping the ball more than twice	A jumper	Ball to the opponent out of bounds
Entering the restraining circle before the tap, or taking an illegal position around it	A non-jumper	Ball to the opponent out of bounds

The throw-in is on the sideline nearest the spot of the violation. For a jump at a free throw circle, the rulebook's list of throw-in spots puts it at the free throw line extended.

That is a heavy price for a small act. A jump ball is a contest for possession, and a violation forfeits the contest. A guard who steps a foot inside the circle a blink early has cost his team the ball as surely as if he had thrown it into the stands.

When both teams break the rule, or the toss is bad

The penalty clause in Rule 10 covers it: "if there is a violation by each team, or if the official makes a bad toss, the toss shall be repeated with the same jumpers." Offsetting violations cancel. So does an official's error: a toss that drifts toward one jumper, or is too low to reach a peak above their hands, is simply done again. The same two players jump. A team does not get to rethink its choice because the first toss went wrong.

Fouls and clocks

Contact during a jump ball, before either team has the ball, is a loose ball foul under Rule 10. Whether free throws follow depends on whether the fouling team is in the penalty.

Timing is handled precisely. The game clock starts when the ball is legally tapped. If a violation or foul happens before a legal tap, neither the game clock nor the shot clock starts, and no time comes off. A jump ball with two-tenths of a second on the clock that ends in an early tap leaves two-tenths on the clock.

How the opening tip sets the quarters, and what winning it is really worth

Rule 6, Section I assigns the later periods in one sentence: "The team which gains first possession of the game will put the ball into play at their opponent's endline to begin the fourth period. The other team will put the ball into play at their opponent's endline at the beginning of the second and third periods."

Read the wording closely. The trigger is first possession, and that is usually the team whose jumper won the tap but not always. A center can win the tip cleanly and watch it land in an opponent's hands. A jumper can commit a violation, in which case the other team inbounds and has first possession. The scorer tracks who actually got the ball.

Period	Who has the ball first	How play starts
First quarter	Whoever secures the opening tip	Jump ball at center court
Second quarter	The team that did not gain first possession	Throw-in from the endline
Third quarter	The team that did not gain first possession	Throw-in from the endline
Fourth quarter	The team that gained first possession	Throw-in from the endline
Each overtime	Whoever secures the tip	Jump ball at center court

Team that gains first possession2quarters

Team that does not2quarters

Follows directly from Rule 6, Section I. The team that gains first possession opens the first and fourth quarters, and its opponent opens the second and third, so the count is level.

Show the numbers

Quarters each team opens with the ball in regulation

Item	Value
Team that gains first possession	2quarters
Team that does not	2quarters

The arithmetic

Two each. The team that wins the tip opens the first and the fourth; the team that loses it opens the second and the third. Across regulation the opening tip hands out no extra possession to anybody. It only decides the order.

Order has some value. Starting the fourth quarter with the ball is the possession most people would choose if they could pick one, and starting the game with it can settle a young team. But the more useful possession at each end of a quarter is the last one, and that is decided by clock management, not by the tip. A team that gets the final shot of a period, or better still two of the last three trips, gains more than the tip gave either side.

The fair conclusion is that the opening tip matters much less than its ceremony suggests. Teams do not build rosters around winning it, coaches rarely mention it, and a center who loses the tip has cost his team almost nothing that the rule does not hand back two quarters later.

Overtime is the exception. Each extra period begins with a fresh jump and no compensating possession follows, so winning that tip is a real, if small, edge in a five-minute period. The rest of the extra-period procedure is in our guide to NBA overtime rules.

The mismatch problem: a guard against a seven-footer

Because the players involved must jump, the NBA's held-ball rule regularly produces contests nobody would design. A 6-foot-1 guard digs at the ball in the post, gets both hands on it, and earns a jump ball against the 7-foot center who was holding it. He has done everything right and his reward is a toss he will usually lose.

This is the oldest complaint about the rule. The defender who forced the stalemate was usually the smaller player, reaching into a bigger one, and the remedy favors height. A good defensive play is converted into a tip the offense will probably win.

The small player has options, none of them good. He can concede the tap and have his teammates crowd the spots where the big man is likely to send it. He can time his jump to make contact with the ball late, as the taller man taps it, hoping to deflect its direction.

When a jumper cannot jump

Injury and ejection are the only ways out, and the rulebook makes sure neither is an advantage. If one of the involved players is hurt and must leave, or has been ejected, "the coach of the opposing team shall select from his opponent's bench a player who will replace the injured or ejected player." The other side picks. It will naturally choose the shortest or least athletic man available. And the injured player "will not be permitted to reenter the game."

That last clause removes any temptation to fake it. A team cannot have its point guard grab a hamstring, bring in a leaper for the tip, and send the guard back two possessions later. Leaving a jump ball through injury ends a player's night.

A newer exception covers head injuries. If a player is removed for a concussion evaluation, his own coach chooses one of the four remaining teammates on the floor to jump, and the player may return if he passes the evaluation under the league's concussion policy. The league did not want a rule that punished a team for following medical protocol.

Jumps where teams do choose

For the center-circle jump balls that do not arise from a held ball, the jump is "between any two opponents in the game at that time," and each team sends whoever it likes from its five. There is a restriction here as well: if injury, ejection or disqualification forces a substitution at that moment, the substitute "may not participate in the jump ball." A coach cannot use the stoppage to bring in a tip specialist. The traditional choice is the center, whose other duties are described in our guide to the five's role at both ends, though a team with a quicker-jumping forward will often use him.

Jump balls at center court that nobody was holding

Section V of Rule 6 lists the occasions for a jump at the center circle. Beyond the start of the game and of each overtime, they share a common feature: play has stopped with neither team entitled to the ball.

A double free throw violation. A player from each team breaks the lane rules on a free throw that would have remained in play. With offsetting violations there is no one to award the ball to.

A double foul during a loose ball. Two opponents foul each other while nobody has possession, such as during a rebound scramble. On an ordinary double foul the team with the ball keeps it; with no such team, the ball is tossed.

The ball comes to rest on the flange or lodges between the ring and the backboard. A wedged ball is dead and belongs to nobody. In the college game the arrow decides it. In the NBA the two teams each pick a jumper and settle it at midcourt, which sends ten players half the length of the floor from wherever the shot went up.

The ball becomes dead with neither team in control and no goal or infraction involved. The usual cause is an inadvertent whistle with a shot in the air or the ball loose. When the officials cannot say who would have gotten it, nobody is given it.

A double foul that results from a difference of opinion between officials. One referee signals a block, another a charge, and after conferring they cannot agree. The rulebook's answer is that both fouls are recorded, no points can be scored, and play resumes with a jump at center.

A suspension of play or a fighting foul during a loose ball. Same principle: the stoppage came when the ball was up for grabs. The rulebook now carves out one exception for a suspension of play. If a team would have imminently gained possession at the moment of the stoppage, that team is awarded the ball and there is no jump.

Officials unable to say who touched the ball last, with the players unidentifiable. If two opponents clearly knocked it out together, those two jump at the nearest circle. If the crew cannot even tell which players were involved, any two opponents jump at center.

These situations differ from a held ball in one important respect. The jumpers are chosen. That removes the mismatch problem entirely and turns the jump into a matchup of each team's best leaper, much like the opening tip.

What happens to the shot clock after a held ball

The answer depends on who caused the held ball and who comes down with the tip. Rule 7 handles it across three lists.

Situation	Shot clock
Defense ties up the offense, and the offense wins the jump	Not reset; the offense has only the time that was left
Defense ties up the offense, and the defense wins the jump	24 seconds, as on any change of possession
Any jump ball that is not the result of a held ball caused by the defense	24 seconds
Defense violates during the jump and the offense gets a frontcourt throw-in	The time that was left, or 14 seconds if less than that remained
Re-toss for a poor toss or a double violation	Not reset

The first row is the one that matters. Among the things for which the clock "is never reset," Rule 7 lists "jump balls which are the result of a held ball caused by the defense." An offense that is tied up with five seconds on the shot clock and wins the tip back has five seconds. If it was tied up with one second left, it has one.

That turns a late-clock tie-up into something close to a stop for the defense whichever way the jump goes. Win the tap, and it is a turnover. Lose it, and the offense must catch a tapped ball, often near midcourt or at the far circle, and get a shot off almost immediately. The defender who reaches in with four seconds on the shot clock has the rule on his side.

The shot clock does not start on the tap. It starts "when new possession is obtained," so the seconds a ball spends bouncing around after a jump do not count against anyone. The game clock, by contrast, has been running since the tap.

Two smaller provisions round it out. A team that gains control of a jump ball in its backcourt receives a new eight seconds to cross midcourt. And in the final 24 seconds of a period the shot clock is off after any change of possession, so a defense that wins a late jump ball simply holds the ball if it is ahead. The complete table of resets is in our explainer on how the shot clock rules work.

Forcing the tie-up, and getting out of one

A held ball is only called when an official decides to call it. That leaves a window, and both sides use it.

The ball handler's exit

A player who has been trapped and feels hands on the ball has one reliable escape: a timeout. Under Rule 5, a timeout request by a player in the game or by the head coach is granted when the ball is dead or "in control of a player on the team making the request." Until the official rules a held ball, the trapped player is still in control. If he, a teammate on the floor or his coach gets the request in first, the team keeps possession and inbounds after the break.

Guards trapped in a corner late in a close game do it routinely. The cost is a timeout a team may want later. How many there are and when they can be spent is set out in our guide to NBA timeout rules.

The timing is unforgiving. A request made after the held-ball whistle changes nothing about the jump, because the ball is already dead and the stalemate already ruled. And a team with no timeouts left that asks for one before a jump ball is in worse trouble than if it had jumped: the excess timeout is a technical foul, and the rulebook awards the ball to the other team.

Why defenders go for the ball

Good defenders are taught to attack the ball with two hands when an opponent brings it low or exposes it: on a rebound pulled down to the waist, on a post player gathering to go up, on a driver who picks up his dribble in traffic. Hands on the ball are legal. Hands on the arms are a foul. The skill is in getting the first without the second.

The reward structure favors trying. A foul gives the offense the ball back, and possibly free throws. A held ball gives the defense a chance at possession and, if it came late in the shot clock, a near-certain stop. Even a jump that the defense expects to lose forces the offense to restart from a tap.

The offense's counter is ball strength, in the phrase coaches use. Chin the ball on a rebound with elbows out. Keep it high or on the hip away from the defender. Pass before the second defender arrives. A player who brings the ball down among smaller, quicker opponents is inviting exactly the scrum the rule rewards.

The NBA jump ball against the college and FIBA possession arrow

American basketball runs two systems side by side. The NBA and the WNBA jump every held ball. College, high school and international basketball use alternating possession: a jump ball starts the game, an arrow at the scorer's table then points to the team that lost it, and each subsequent held-ball situation is settled by giving the ball to the team the arrow favors and flipping it.

Point of comparison	NBA	NCAA and high school	FIBA
Start of the game	Jump ball	Jump ball	Jump ball
Held ball during play	Jump ball between the two players	Throw-in by the arrow	Throw-in by the arrow
Start of later periods	Set by the opening tip	Throw-in by the arrow	Throw-in by the arrow
Start of overtime	Jump ball	Jump ball	Throw-in by the arrow
Ball wedged on the rim	Jump ball at center	Throw-in by the arrow	Throw-in by the arrow

The working of the college system, including when the arrow flips and what happens if a team violates on its arrow throw-in, has its own page in our guide to the possession arrow in college basketball.

What the arrow fixes

It fixes three real problems. The mismatch disappears, since nobody jumps. The bad toss disappears with it. And the game moves faster, because pointing takes a second and a jump ball takes a good deal longer by the time ten players have walked to a circle and argued over spots.

What the arrow takes away

It takes away the defense's reward. Under alternating possession, a defender who forces a held ball gets the ball only if the arrow happens to point his way. Half the time, by design, his effort earns nothing but a restart for the offense. The rule treats a hard-won tie-up as an administrative event, to be resolved by whose turn it is.

It also introduces an oddity of its own. Late in a close college game, both benches know who has the arrow, and it shapes behavior: a team that holds it can dive on a loose ball knowing a tie-up is as good as possession, and a team that does not must win the ball outright. Possession in the final minute can turn on a tie-up from the first half.

The NBA's system has the opposite faults and the opposite virtue. It is slower and can be unfair to a small player. But the ball is always contested, and nothing that happened twenty minutes earlier decides who gets it. On balance the professional rule is the more defensible of the two, with one reservation: the league could let a team choose its jumper on a held ball without losing anything that matters, and it has never seen fit to.

The remaining differences between the codes are gathered in our guide to college basketball rules against the NBA's and our explainer on FIBA rules against NBA rules.

From a center jump after every basket to one a game

James Naismith's game of 1891 was started by throwing the ball up between two players at the middle of the floor, and for more than four decades it was restarted the same way after every score. Make a basket, walk back to center, jump again.

The consequences were predictable. A team with a tall, well-timed center could win most of those jumps and so get the ball back after its own baskets. Scoring runs fed themselves. The game stopped constantly. Teams prized the jumper above almost anyone else, and the name of the position is usually traced to the player who stood in the middle of the floor for those tips.

In 1937 the committee that then wrote the rules for American college and amateur basketball abolished the center jump after a made field goal, beginning with the 1937-38 season. From then on the team that had been scored on took the ball out of bounds at the endline. It is hard to name a rule change that altered the sport more. Play became continuous, the fast break became possible straight from a made basket, and a team could no longer hold the ball simply by owning the tallest man.

The professional game took the same course, and the NBA has never restarted play with a jump after a basket. Its own contribution came later. For years it began every quarter with a jump ball at center; since a 1975 change only the first quarter and overtime have started that way, with the opening tip assigning the other three periods as described above.

The colleges went further. In 1981 the NCAA adopted alternating possession, keeping the jump ball only for the start of the game and of overtime. The arguments for it are the ones still heard today: inconsistent tosses, delays, and mismatches between jumpers. High schools use the same procedure, and FIBA moved to its own version in 2003, one that uses the arrow to start overtime as well.

That leaves the NBA and the WNBA as the major holdouts. The jump ball has shrunk from the most frequent event in a basketball game to one of the rarest, and in most of the world it now happens once a night. In the NBA it can still decide who has the ball with three seconds on the shot clock and a playoff game in the balance, which is a fair argument for keeping it. More of the league's rulebook is explained across the guides on our basketball pages.