By: Doctor Dunkenstein

THE GOLDEN RULES OF BASKETBALL 

The Golden Rule states you should treat and do unto others  in the manner and way you want to and be treated and done unto.  It’s a good rule to live by and apply to life.

However, it does NOT apply to playing basketball.  Yes you should not try to physically ‘harm’ the players on the opposing team.   Basketball is a physical contact endeavor, just as most contact sports are, it’s about physically dominating your opponent.   You do not want your opponent to do to you what you want to do to him/her.  

You don’t want to be physically dominated and pushed around on the basketball court, you want to block, push, bump, and even elbow your opponent in order to dominate him. You do not want him to do the same things to you that you want to do to him.

 All of your movements and developed skill are directed to avoid being  physically pushed around and trying to push around and control the players on the other team.  That’s how the game was designed when Naismith created it to keep his YMCA rough-neck young over energetic trouble makers busy in the indoor months of Winter

Yes, you try to do all this basketball ‘rough stuff’ without seriously harming anyone.  And,  you don’t want to play against people who are trying to intentionally harm you.  In this sense the ‘Golden Rule of Life’ fits. But there is a very thin line between playing rough and playing dirty.

Thus, the game of basketball has referees to determine when you have crossed the thin line and broken the rules of the game. 

The  degree by which rough play is allowed or disallowed in a game is subjective in every game.  But physical dominance is the object of basketball.  Players are subject to referees determining when you break the rules and cross the line.  If you get caught six times breaking the subjected rules of a referee,  you get  tossed out of the game.  If you cross the line with malice of intent to harm, in any single individual instance, you can be immediately ejected from the game.

In a nutshell, that’s basketball.  That’s the Golden Rule which fascinates us, it provides the ‘Art of Movement’ to the game.

More often than not, the more size and weight you have, the more you can push the other players using your body to apply force.  

There is another golden rule about how to win basketball games and score more points than your opponent.  This rule has also been around since the origins of the game.  It was even taught by Phog Allen himself, and it still applies today in the 2026 NBA games.

The ‘Golden Rule’ of  Basketball has three parts:

(1.) Score the most points at the start of the game, in the first five minutes.  ‘Win the first five’!

(2.) Score the most points at the end of the first half and the start of the second half of the game.  Win these 2-3 minutes.

(3) Score more points in the last 3 minutes of the game.

If  you apply this ‘Golden Rule of Basketball’,  you will win the entire game. 

Of course there is no certainty the opponents will not outscore you in the overall game even if you accomplish the objectives of the ‘Golden Rule of Basketball. But generally, the rule results in victory.

Scoring points in today’s NBA game has taken on a new life with the increase skill of making three points shots and the increased speed of the players.   Point deficits and gains within the modern day professional game are increasing in points, and in the time points can be scored.

Nevertheless, ‘The Golden Rule of Basketball’ is an excellent teaching point and an important application to winning basketball games. 

Intentionally harming the players on the other team breaks , not only the rules of the game, but its contrary to the ‘Golden Rule of Life.

If you Master the ‘Golden Rules’ of scoring more points, you won’t need to break the ‘Golden Rule of Life’ of not harming people, in order to win the game.