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Basketball is a competitive sport invented as a men's game in 1891 by James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, but now played on every inhabited continent and by women, most often contested by two teams, each comprising five participating players, for whom substitutions may be made. A team attempts to advance a spherical ball through a cast-iron basket with attached net and backboard, elevated such that the basket rim is–in most professional leagues–ten feet (3.048 meters) from the surface of the rectanguar basketball court, for indoor games usually made of hardwood and for outdoor games usually made of asphalt, on which the sport is played.

Offensively, a player advances the ball either by bouncing it himself while stationary or moving (dribbling) or by throwing it (passing) it to a teammate, such that a player, within the time permitted by a shot clock, eventually propels (shoots) the ball toward the basket; should the ball pass through the basket, one (free throw), two (field goal), or three (three-point field goal) points, depending on the distance from which the shot is taken, are awarded; the player, in most cases, to have tendered the ball to the scoring player is credited with an assist. Several strategies are employed by a team toward the end of generating uncontested shots for players, who most often begin a given play play in distinct areas—the center and power forward proximate to the basket (top of the key); the small forward and shooting guard proximate to the three-point arc; and the point guard passim. The team to have scored more points upon the expiration of the time alloted for the game, usually between 40 and 60 minutes and divided into four equal quarters or two equal halves, is the winner, and ties are most often settled during overtime periods.

A defense attempts to prevent an offensive team from scoring and to garner the ball for itself, employing various strategies to force an opposing player to surrender (turnover) the basketball, by dispossessing (steal) a player or successfully contesting his shot (block) or, upon an opponent's making an unsuccessful shot, overcoming an opponent to win the loose ball (rebound).

Certain disruptive contact, especially that by which an advantage is gained, is penalized (as a personal foul), as is unsportsmanlike conduct (as a technical foul), with disqualification often imposed on players who accumulate a pre-arranged number of fouls in one game. Certain means of ballhandling, such as one's running with the ball while not dribbling (travelling) or one's catching the ball between dribbles (double dribbling) are proscribed and, when committed by a given team, result in the awarding of possession to the opposing team.

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A hook shot is an offensive basketball maneuver in which a player, usually in a position perpendicular to the basket and most often situated in the key, gently throws the ball with a sweeping motion of his arm in an upward arc with a follow-through which ends over his head. Unlike the jump shot, it is shot with only one hand; the non-shooting arm is typically used to create space between the shooter and the player defending him. In view of the height achieved by the shooter and the released ball, the hook shot is exceedingly difficult to block or alter, but while dribbled and controlled in preparation for the shot, the ball is susceptible to being stolen from behind. The hook shot was most prominently practiced by seven-feet-tall center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the all-time leading scorer in the National Basketball Association, whose shot, because of the height at which it was released, was styled as the sky hook; because the shot was released at the top of Abdul-Jabbar's arm arc, an attempted block was likely to result in a goaltending infraction.