Fouls & Free Throws

Basketball allows incidental contact but penalizes illegal contact: hitting a shooter's arm, grabbing, pushing, or sliding into a driving player's path late. These are personal fouls.

A defender CAN stand their ground. If they establish position and an offensive player crashes through them, that's a charge — an offensive foul. If the defender is still moving into position, it's a block — a defensive foul. The charge/block call is one of the hardest in basketball.

Foul a player in the act of shooting and they get free throws (2 or 3, or 1 on an and-one). Foul a player who isn't shooting and the other team usually just inbounds — until team fouls pile up.

Each personal foul also counts as a team foul. Reach a threshold (varies by league — e.g., 5 per quarter in the NBA, 7 per half in high school) and the other team shoots free throws on every subsequent foul, called the bonus. In high school, the old 7-foul bonus was one-and-one: make the first free throw to earn a second.

Players have a personal limit: 5 fouls in high school/college, 6 in the NBA. Reach it and you're out of the game — a huge strategic factor coaches manage constantly.

Special categories: technical fouls (unsportsmanlike behavior, illegal defense — free throw plus possession in most leagues), flagrant/intentional fouls (excessive or non-basketball contact — free throws AND the ball), and offensive fouls like charges and illegal screens (turnover, no free throws).