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team sport played on a court with baskets on either end
Travel topics > Activities > Sports > Spectator sports > Basketball in North America

Basketball is one of the most popular team sports in North America, both as a spectactor sport and as an activity, and the second most popular sport in the world, only after soccer. The top professional league, the National Basketball Association (NBA) is among the "Big 4" of North American sports leagues when it comes to popularity and revenue. The others are the National Football League, National Hockey League and Major League Baseball. The NBA is head and shoulders above all other professional basketball leagues, and thus attracts the best talent from all over the world.

Understand

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A "slam dunk", a type of field goal where the player jumps up next to the hoop and drops the ball into it

History

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The game was invented in December 1891 by the Canadian-American James Naismith, who was a college professor in Springfield, Massachusetts. He wanted to come up with a team sport that could be played indoors during the winter when the weather didn't allow for popular outdoor sports like rugby, football, soccer or baseball. He used soccer balls for the game; proper basketballs were invented several decades later. Naismith also intended the game to limit contact between players, fixing the goal at a height then thought to be hard to reach even by jumping as he observed a lot of physical contact going in the contest close to the goal in other sports. There are conflicting interpretations whether this was due to the high injury risk associated with various codes of football or ice hockey at the time or religious prudery.

The color line in professional basketball was broken in the NBA's second season (1947/48), when the league signed its first non-white player, Japanese-American Wataru Misaka. By the 1950s African-American players became a common sight in the league. Now, almost three out of four NBA players are African-American. A significant minority of non-American players are black or mixed-race — for example, two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) is the son of Nigerian immigrants, and four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert (France) has a black father and white mother. While the demographics of the fans also skew somewhat in favor of black people, it is far less noticeable than among the players.

The NBA draws most of the top players from throughout the world. Two major events at the end of the 1980s brought this about: the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the decision of FIBA, the sport's international governing body, to allow NBA players to compete in the Olympics. Today, a bit over 20% of the league's players were born outside the U.S. The largest share has traditionally come from Europe, but African countries are producing an increasing number of players. Many other countries are represented in the league, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada and Serbia. The Spanish presence is large enough that Spaniards now call their men's national team La ÑBA.

Rules and gameplay

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Basketball is played by two teams, each having 5 players on the court. The objective is to put (by throwing) the basketball through the basket or hoop mounted at the rear of the opposing team's side, thereby scoring points. Another objective is preventing the opposing team from putting the ball through the hoop on their side. The hoops are mounted 10 ft (3.05 m) above ground to prevent goaltending. The team usually gets two points for putting the ball through the hoop; this is called a field goal. If it's thrown from further away, behind the three-point line, the team gets three points. Actions against the rules fall under two categories: violations and fouls. Most fouls occur as a result of personal contact with another player, and usually results in the ball being turned over to the opposing team. A player who has committed 6 fouls in the NBA or WNBA, or 5 fouls in NCAA and FIBA (whose rules are used by most non-US competitions), is fouled out, meaning that (s)he must be substituted off and cannot take part in the remainder of the game.

When a player commits a foul against a player from the opposing team who is attempting a goal, the fouled player may attempt throw the ball into the hoop while everyone else is standing still. This is called a free throw, and is worth one point if the throw is successful. In most cases, a player is entitled to take two or three free throws, depending on where the shot attempt was made; if you hear that a player is shooting "one-and-one", then the player will get another opportunity if the first free throw scores. (The "one-and-one" is now used only in the US college men's ruleset.) If the player that is being fouled scores a goal, one free throw is awarded so the player has the chance to score an extra point. Two free throws are also awarded for all defensive fouls regardless of whether the fouled player is attempting a shot once a team has accumulated a certain number of fouls in a certain period, which is 5 per quarter in the NBA, WNBA, FIBA, NCAA women's, and US high school play, and 7 per half in NCAA men's play. The team with most points when the time is up wins the game.

Game duration varies between leagues. In the NBA, games are played in four quarters, each taking 12 minutes. The WNBA is also played in quarters, but each lasts only 10 minutes. College games are the same length as WNBA games, but the timing conventions are different for men's and women's play. Men's games are played in 20-minute halves, while women's games use 10-minute quarters. Games held under FIBA rules (including the Olympics) are played in 10-minute quarters. Youth games use shorter periods still; for example, US high school games are played in 8-minute quarters. If the score is even when the time is up, overtime periods of five minutes (4 in US high schools) are played until a winner emerges. Like hockey, and unlike soccer, the clock is stopped when the play isn't active, so games take more time than actual playing time. The shot clock is equally important to the pacing of a basketball game. Set at 24 seconds in professional and Olympic basketball, and 30 seconds in college basketball, the shot clock marks the time that the offensive team has to set up and make a shot at the basket. (Most US states do not use a shot clock for high schools; those that do must use 35 seconds.) Hitting the rim of the basket resets the shot clock, as do defensive fouls that do not occur in the act of shooting. If the offense lets the shot clock run out without shooting, a shot clock violation occurs, and the other team gets the ball.

Basketball players are not allowed to carry the ball as they move. This is called a traveling violation, and results in the other team getting the ball. Instead, the ball is passed between the players, and if a player is moving with the ball, the player has to dribble it, i.e. bounce it between their hand and the floor. A player is also not allowed to dribble the ball with both hands simultaneously, and doing so is a violation known as a double dribble that results in the other team getting the ball.

Players also may not interfere with the ball while it is on a downward trajectory towards the basket. Doing so is an offence known as goaltending which results in a field goal being awarded to the shooter. In the NBA and NCAA, players are forbidden from interfering with the ball while it is bouncing on the rim within an imaginary cylinder on top of the basket, and doing so is also a goaltending offence. However, FIBA rules allow players to play the ball once it has struck the rim.

The National Basketball Association (NBA), the top league of basketball in the world, has 30 teams as of the 2022–23 season, one of which is from Canada and 29 from the United States. The NBA season begins in October and lasts until April, when a playoff series begins featuring the top 8 teams from the Eastern and Western Conferences. This culminates in June with the NBA Finals, where the conference champions meet to determine the NBA champion.

The most recent 2023–24 season was the first for the league's midseason tournament. The 30 teams are split into five-team groups, with all groups featuring teams in the same conference. Each team plays twice in November, once each home and away, against the other teams in its group. The winners from each group, plus the group runner-up with the best record from each conference, advance to a knockout stage held in early December, with quarterfinals hosted by the top two seeds from each conference and the semifinals and finals held at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip. All tournament games except the championship final count as regular-season games.

Map
Map of Basketball in North America

Eastern Conference

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Atlantic Division

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  • Boston Celtics – 1 TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts (in the North End). The Celtics have the most NBA Finals championships of any team, partially due to the greatness of Bill Russell and Larry Bird. The most recent title team in 2024 doesn't have quite the star power, but team leaders Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are perennial All-Stars.
  • Brooklyn Nets – 2 Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York (in Downtown Brooklyn).
  • New York Knicks – 3 Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York (in the Theater District).
  • Philadelphia 76ers – 4 Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (in South Philly). Home to former MVP Joel Embiid.
  • Toronto Raptors – 5 Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Ontario (in the Entertainment District).

Central Division

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  • Chicago Bulls – 6 United Center, Chicago, Illinois (on the Near West Side). Michael Jordan may be gone, but the Bulls still provide exciting games to watch.
  • Cleveland Cavaliers – 7 Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, Ohio (in Downtown Cleveland). The Cavaliers have finally won the championship that they — and their city — have longed for, but after LeBron James left for Los Angeles, the Cavs immediately plummeted to the bottom of the league. They've since returned to playoff contention behind a young nucleus.
  • Detroit Pistons – 8 Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, Michigan (in Midtown Detroit).
  • Indiana Pacers – 9 Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana.
  • Milwaukee Bucks – 10 Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Home to two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Southeast Division

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Western Conference

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Northwest Division

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Pacific Division

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  • Golden State Warriors – 21 Chase Center, San Francisco, California (on the Mission Bay waterfront). The Warriors have emerged as a "superteam" that has dominated the NBA, with such players as Steph Curry and Kevin Durant making the "Dubs" a team to contend with (though Durant has since departed, first for Brooklyn and now Phoenix). The Warriors returned to San Francisco in 2018 after nearly a half-century playing in Oakland, and after some injury-riddled seasons returned to the dominance of their recent past, winning the 2022 title.
  • Los Angeles Clippers – 22 Intuit Dome, Inglewood, California (near LAX). The Clippers were historically known for being perennial underdogs, but have found some success starting around 2010, with the potential for even more with the arrival of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in 2019. However, they've been hampered by a series of injuries, especially to Leonard. The Clippers had shared an arena with the Lakers from 1999 to 2024, but have finally moved out into their own place not far from SoFi Stadium, home to both of the market's NFL teams.
  • Los Angeles Lakers – 23 Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles, California (in Downtown L.A.) One of the most successful teams in the NBA's history, the Lakers are the team of Jerry West (whose silhouette appears on the NBA logo), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. With LeBron James joining the team in 2018 and Anthony Davis joining a year later, they emerged from the doldrums of the previous 10 years, winning the title in 2020. They also won the league's first midseason tournament in 2023.
  • Phoenix Suns – 24 Footprint Center, Phoenix, Arizona.
  • Sacramento Kings – 25 Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, California.

Southwest Division

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  • Dallas Mavericks – 26 American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas (in Downtown Dallas). The longtime team of German Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki, and now led by the versatile Slovenian Luka Dončić.
  • Houston Rockets – 27 Toyota Center, Houston, Texas (in Downtown Houston). Known for being the team of Hakeem Olajuwon, a Hall of Fame center who played college ball in the city and led the Rockets to two titles during Michael Jordan's first retirement; and Yao Ming, perhaps the greatest Chinese basketball player ever, and the only one to achieve success in the NBA.
  • Memphis Grizzlies – 28 FedExForum, Memphis, Tennessee.
  • New Orleans Pelicans – 29 Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, Louisiana (in the Central Business District).
  • San Antonio Spurs – 30 Frost Bank Center, San Antonio, Texas. Arguably the most consistently successful team from the late 1990s into the late 2010s, with four championships and almost-regular playoff appearances behind stars such as Hall of Famers Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Manu Ginóbili, and Tony Parker. After hitting a dry spell in the 2020s, they're now trying to rebuild behind young French mega-prospect Victor Wembanyama.

WNBA

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The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), operated by the NBA, is arguably the top women's league in the world, at least in level of competition. However, salaries greatly lag those on offer in major leagues in Europe and China (whose business models differ radically from those in the WNBA). Its season runs out of phase with the normal rhythm of basketball, being played over the Northern Hemisphere summer, when most other leagues (even those south of the equator) are on their offseason break. This scheduling was mainly to accommodate NBA team owners' desire for more arena dates during the offseason; when the WNBA was founded, all of the teams were owned by NBA franchises. Many of the teams have since been sold to outside owners, but the league has kept its summer schedule. This has the side effect of allowing many of the league's top players to play overseas during the traditional basketball season, usually making several times as much as they do in the WNBA.

The league's 12 teams, all in the US, are split into two conferences. In the upcoming 2025 season, coinciding with the arrival of a 13th team, each team will play 44 regular-season games. The top eight teams in the overall league standings, regardless of conference alignment, advance to the playoffs. The current playoff format, adopted in 2022, is a standard knockout format. The first round consists of best-of-three series, followed by the best-of-five semifinals and the best-of-five WNBA Finals. The Finals will expand to best-of-seven in 2025.

Unlike other major sports in the US (except for soccer), the WNBA has a midseason tournament involving all of the league's teams. The Commissioner's Cup debuted in the 2021 season, two years before the NBA's version; it had been scheduled to debut in 2020 before COVID-19 got in the way. As of the latest format change in 2024, each team plays one designated Cup game against every other team in its conference, with all Cup games being played in the first half of June. Once each team has played all of its Cup games, the teams with the best Cup record in each conference advance to the Cup final, a single game held in late June.

Arenas listed below are those regularly used for home games. Teams that play in smaller venues (basically those not shared with NBA and/or NHL teams) will occasionally move games expected to draw unusually large crowds to larger arenas in their market. This was especially evident in 2024 due to enormous ticket demand for games involving the Indiana Fever, which had selected college basketball icon Caitlin Clark as the top pick in that year's draft.

Eastern Conference

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  • Atlanta Dream – 31 Gateway Center Arena in the Atlanta suburb of College Park, Georgia.
  • Chicago Sky – 32 Wintrust Arena on the Near South Side.
  • Connecticut Sun – 33 Mohegan Sun Arena at the Mohegan Sun casino complex in Uncasville, Connecticut.
  • Indiana Fever – Shares Gainbridge Fieldhouse with the Pacers. The league's biggest draw, thanks largely to Clark's presence.
  • New York Liberty – Shares Barclays Center with the Brookyln Nets.
  • Washington Mystics – 34 Entertainment and Sports Arena in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Southeast Washington, D.C.

Western Conference

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  • Dallas Wings – 35 College Park Center on the campus of the University of Texas at Arlington. In 2026, they'll move to Memorial Arena, part of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in downtown Dallas.
  • Las Vegas Aces – 36 Michelob Ultra Arena at the Mandalay Bay casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Two-time defending league champs.
  • Los Angeles Sparks – Shares Crypto.com Arena with the Lakers (and shared with the Clippers as well until that team moved out after the 2023–24 NBA season).
  • Minnesota Lynx – Share Target Center with the Timberwolves.
  • Phoenix Mercury – Shares Footprint Center with the Suns.
  • Seattle Storm – 37 Climate Pledge Arena at Seattle Center, just to the northwest of downtown Seattle.

Future teams

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  • The Golden State Valkyries, owned by the Golden State Warriors and playing in the Warriors' home of Chase Center, will start play in 2025.
  • Two as-yet-unnamed teams are expected to start play in the 2026 season:
    • Portland, which had a WNBA team from 2000–2002, will return to the league. While the team plans to play at the Trail Blazers' home of Moda Center, it's not known yet whether it will take up the former Portland team's identity as the Fire.
    • Toronto will become the league's first Canadian team, playing at Coca-Cola Coliseum.

Minor leagues

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NBA G League

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The NBA's official minor league, known as the G League due to a sponsorship deal with the Gatorade sports drink, has operated since 2001. It started with eight teams, all in the Southeast U.S., but it has steadily expanded over the years and now has 31 teams, all but one affiliated with a single NBA franchise (and almost all of these owned directly by the NBA team). As of the league's next season in 2024–25, all NBA teams have a G League affiliate.

While the quality of play is obviously not as high as in the NBA, games are still every bit as competitive as those in the NBA, given that every player in the league is trying to prove himself to NBA teams. Also, the U.S. men's national team is now made up almost exclusively of G League players except in the final Olympic and World Cup tournaments.

The season is divided into two portions. It starts in November with the Showcase Cup, with a group stage followed by an 8-team knockout tournament. After the Showcase Cup ends just before Christmas, the regular season starts and runs through March, followed by playoffs that end with the G League Finals in April.

Each team's NBA affiliate is indicated in parentheses next to the team's name. Teams are as of the league's next 2024–25 season, with the following changes from 2023–24:

  • NBA G League Ignite, which had been an NBA-sponsored program providing an alternative to college basketball for top prospects, was shut down after the 2023–24 season. The concept became irrelevant once college athletes were allowed to make money from endorsements, personal appearances, and apparel sales earlier in the 2020s.
  • Phoenix will get a new team, the Valley Suns.
  • The team previously known as the Ontario Clippers is moving to the San Diego County city of Oceanside and will rebrand as the San Diego Clippers.

Eastern Conference

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  • Birmingham Squadron (New Orleans Pelicans) – Legacy Arena at the downtown convention center in Birmingham, Alabama.
  • Capital City Go-Go (Washington Wizards) – Entertainment and Sports Arena in the southeast Washington, D.C. neighborhood of Congress Heights, also home to the WNBA's Washington Mystics.
  • Cleveland Charge (Cleveland Cavaliers) – Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University in downtown Cleveland.
  • College Park Skyhawks (Atlanta Hawks) – Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Georgia, also home to the WNBA's Atlanta Dream.
  • Delaware Blue Coats (Philadelphia 76ers) – Chase Fieldhouse in Wilmington.
  • Grand Rapids Gold (Denver Nuggets) – Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
  • Greensboro Swarm (Charlotte Hornets) – Novant Health Fieldhouse, part of the Greensboro Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, North Carolina.
  • Indiana Mad Ants (Indiana Pacers) – Shares Gainbridge Fieldhouse with the Pacers. The team was originally intended to move to a new arena in the suburb of Noblesville and adopt a new name for 2024–25, but the new arena and name change have been delayed to 2025–26.
  • Long Island Nets (Brooklyn Nets) – Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York (on Long Island in Nassau County). Notably, this team plays in a former home of its parent club.
  • Maine Celtics (Boston Celtics) – Portland Exposition Building in Portland, Maine.
  • Motor City Cruise (Detroit Pistons) – Wayne State Fieldhouse at Wayne State University's athletic complex on Detroit's West Side, next to the boundary of Midtown.
  • Osceola Magic (Orlando Magic) – Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Florida.
  • Raptors 905 (Toronto Raptors) – Paramount Fine Foods Centre in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga. Like its parent club, 905 is its league's only Canadian team.
  • Westchester Knicks (New York Knicks) – Westchester County Center in White Plains, New York.
  • Windy City Bulls (Chicago Bulls) – NOW Arena in the northwest Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
  • Wisconsin Herd (Milwaukee Bucks) – Oshkosh Arena in Oshkosh.

Western Conference

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  • Austin Spurs (San Antonio Spurs) – H-E-B Center in the northwest Austin suburb of Cedar Park, Texas.
  • Capitanes de Ciudad de México – A team from Mexico City that formerly played in that country's top professional league before joining the G League in 2021–22 and playing a standard league schedule for the first time in 2023–24. They play at Arena CDMX in the northeast district of Azcapotzalco. It's not only the largest arena in the G League, but has a larger capacity than any NBA arena.
  • Iowa Wolves (Minnesota Timberwolves) – Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
  • Memphis Hustle (Memphis Grizzlies) – Landers Center in the Memphis suburb of Southaven, Mississippi.
  • Oklahoma City Blue (Oklahoma City Thunder) – Paycom Center in downtown Oklahoma City, also home to the Thunder.
  • Rio Grande Valley Vipers (Houston Rockets) – Bert Ogden Arena in Edinburg, Texas.
  • Rip City Remix (Portland Trail Blazers) – Chiles Center on the North Portland campus of the University of Portland.
  • Salt Lake City Stars (Utah Jazz) – Maverik Center in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Valley City, Utah.
  • San Diego Clippers (Los Angeles Clippers) – Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California. Incidentally, the LA Clippers had played in San Diego under the Clippers name from 1978–1984.
  • Santa Cruz Warriors (Golden State Warriors) – Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz, California.
  • Sioux Falls Skyforce (Miami Heat) – Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
  • Stockton Kings (Sacramento Kings) – Stockton Arena in Stockton, California.
  • South Bay Lakers (Los Angeles Lakers) – UCLA Health Training Center in the South Bay city of El Segundo, California.
  • Texas Legends (Dallas Mavericks) – Comerica Center in the north Dallas suburb of Frisco.
  • Valley Suns (Phoenix Suns) – Starting play in 2024–25 at Mullett Arena on the main Tempe campus of Arizona State University.

College basketball (NCAA)

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Most universities across the United States also sponsor basketball teams. Despite changes diminishing the role of colleges in developing talent, the collegiate game remains a major source of players for the NBA and WNBA. While there are several governing bodies for collegiate basketball, the most important of these is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams are divided into conferences, which usually group universities in the same geographic region, and within the NCAA, divisions (the most prominent university programs compete in Division I) .

The collegiate season begins in early November, and ends in early March. After conference championships take up a week in mid-March, playoff tournaments determine national champions. In particular, the NCAA's Division I men's basketball championship, often called March Madness, generates intense fan and media interest. The single-elimination tournament lends itself to tension as stronger teams fight to avoid being upset by lesser known programs. The championship game occurs in early April.

More than 360 teams play within NCAA's Division I, with teams in every state but Alaska. Hundreds more play in lower levels of the collegiate game.

3x3 or three on three is a variant of basketball on a half-court with only one hoop and three players in each team. Under the rules of FIBA, which governs all play between national teams and whose rules are followed by almost all leagues outside the U.S., it's played in a single period of 10 minutes with a 12-second shot clock, and the team with the highest score when the time is up wins. Also, if one team reaches 21 points, the game is over and that team wins the game. Successful shots from within the arc are worth one point, from outside two points. Overtime in FIBA 3x3 is very different from that in the full-court game—it's an untimed period, although the shot clock still runs. Overtime ends once either team has scored two points. (This trumps the "21 points to a win" rule; if the game is tied at 20 at the end of regulation, it still takes two points to win.)

Developed in the 1980s in the United States, 3x3 has become an official form of basketball regulated by FIBA, and became a stand-alone Olympic sport in the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Streetball

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Streetball

Streetball is basketball played outdoors, and usually with less strict rules than regular basketball.

Museums and other attractions

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Sculpture of James Naismith

Outside North America

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Outside North America, basketball is a big sport in Mediterranean Europe, the former Eastern Bloc, former Yugoslavia, China, the Philippines, and Liberia, and is the second most popular spectator sport in the world after soccer. FIBA rules, which are used in international competitions such as the Olympics and most domestic competitions outside the U.S. and Canada, differ slightly from the NBA, WNBA and NCAA rules, though these differences are largely minor, and top players are usually able to adapt without any major issues.

European men's club teams play each other in the EuroLeague (analogous to association football's UEFA Champions League), EuroCup (analogous to the UEFA Europa League), and Basketball Champions League (analogous to the UEFA Conference League). Teams qualify for the EuroLeague and EuroCup through their respective domestic basketball leagues, some of the more notable ones being the leagues in Spain, Greece, Turkey and Russia, with their top basketball teams often being affiliates of their top soccer teams. European women's clubs have their own EuroLeague and EuroCup (which, unlike the men's versions which are run by the top clubs, are operated by FIBA's European zone).

The Philippines has a wildly popular professional league, the Philippine Basketball Association. Its business model radically differs from those of the NBA or European leagues—all teams are owned and operated by major local corporations, with teams changing their names almost every year to promote one or another of their owners' brands. No team has its own arena; all games are held at large arenas in Metro Manila. Its season is divided into three segments locally known as "conferences"—one restricted to players with Filipino nationality, and two that allow each team to field a severely restricted number of non-Filipinos. College/university basketball is also quite popular in the country, with numerous governing associations.

European men's national teams play each other in EuroBasket, a tournament now held every four years. FIBA's other continental zones have their own tournaments for men's national teams—Afrobasket for Africa, the FIBA AmeriCup for the Americas, and the FIBA Asia Cup for both the Asian and Oceanian zones. Each of these has an analogous women's tournament (which, unlike the men's versions, are still held every two years). Men's and women's national basketball teams from around the world play each other in the FIBA World Cup and in the Summer Olympics, with the Summer Olympics being considered the pinnacle of the sport for national teams. The men's World Cup is held the year before the Summer Olympics, and the women's version is in the same years as the Winter Olympics and FIFA World Cup. The United States is by far the dominant team in international basketball, having won the vast majority of gold medals at the Olympics in both the men's and women's events.

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