Gene Rinderknecht says that basketball is a national past time, one with many different rules. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but additional time (overtime) is issued when the score is tied at the end of regulation. A team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the basket during regular play. The ball can be advanced on the court by bouncing it while walking or running or throwing it to a teammate. A team can also score via free throws, which are worth one point after the other team was assessed with certain fouls. It is a violation to lift or drag one's pivot foot without dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands then resume dribbling. A field goal scores three points for the shooting team if the player shoots from behind the three-point line, and two points if shot from in front of the line. Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball.

The first balls made specifically for basketball were brown, and it was only in the late 1950s that Tony Hinkle, searching for a ball that would be more visible to players and spectators alike, introduced the orange ball that is now in common use. Passing the ball was the primary means of ball movement. Dribbling was not part of the original game except for the "bounce pass" to teammates. Dribbling was eventually introduced but limited by the asymmetric shape of early balls. Dribbling only became a major part of the game around the 1950s, as manufacturing improved the ball shape.

Gene Rinderknecht says that today virtually every high school in the United States fields a basketball team in varsity competition. Basketball's popularity remains high, both in rural areas where they carry the identification of the entire community, as well as at some larger schools known for their basketball teams where many players go on to participate at higher levels of competition after graduation. In the 2003–04 season, 1,002,797 boys and girls represented their schools in interscholastic basketball competition, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. The states of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky are particularly well known for their residents' devotion to high school basketball, commonly called Hoosier Hysteria in Indiana; the critically acclaimed film Hoosiers shows high school basketball's depth of meaning to these communities.

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