Specifications of Basketball Scoreboards

As odd as it may seem, there are no specifications for an NBA scoreboard but there are certain things the scoreboard must include by implication of the rules. In other words, the rules governing the game don't have any requirements for size or illumination or most of what is found on scoreboards in the NBA, but through inference the rules require things like the number of personal fouls a team has totaled and the score. In cases of dispute, the final word, in most cases, rests with the official timekeeper and official scorekeeper and the referee crew chief. The NCAA, on the other hand, specifically addresses regulations regarding basketball scoreboards.

  1. Trent Tucker Inference

    • There are references to a scoreboard and time keeping only in passing in the official NBA rules. A good example of this is called the Tucker rule, so named for former New York Knick Trent Tucker. Tucker took an inbound pass and scored the winning basket with one-tenth of a second remaining in the game. Later tests determined it was impossible to inbound a pass and make a shot in less than three-tenths of a second.

      The relevance is that there must be a way to measure tenths of seconds which implies the scoreboard clock measures the game time down to the tenths of a second. The Tucker rule, implemented after the 1989-1990 season, doesn't permit an inbounded shot to count with three-tenths of a second or less remaining in the game.

    More Inferences

    • Section VIII -- Duties of Timers, subsection a) states "The official timer and the 24-second clock operator shall be provided with digital stop watches to be used with the timing of timeouts and in case the official game clock, 24-second clocks/game clocks located above the backboards fail to work properly." That infers there must be a 24-second clock located above the scoreboard, Nowhere in the rules does such a requirement exist but common sense dictates there must be one to comply with the rule.

    Rounding out the NBA

    • Subsection f) of the same section requires a buzzer to sound and clock to expire simultaneously at the end of quarters, so there must be a synchronized game clock and buzzer. There is also a specific requirement that lights on the scoreboard indicate the number of team fouls for each team, allowing the opposing team to take an extra shot from the foul line when the offending team has more than five personal fouls in a half. All the rest of the whiz-bang gizmos and jumbo screens are at the discretion of the home team.

    NCAA

    • Sections 17 and 18 of the NCAA rules spell out in great specificity what is required of the scoreboard, game clock and shot clock displays. Among other things, the rules require a clock display the game time down to tenths of a second and an alternate time keeping mechanism if the main scoreboard malfunctions, The rules are so detailed that they require "red LED lights visible through the 24-inch-by-18-inch rectangle painted on the backboard placed behind each backboard or LED lights placed around the backboard." Not green or blue, but red. Most of the rest included on the scoreboard is common sense--score, personal fouls--but they are stated explicitly in the rules.

    2010

    • Many of the NCAA Division I scoreboard rules will be required beginning in 2010 for Division II and III schools, as well. One new requirement in 2010 is a separate scoreboard--a shot clock--that must be mounted above the backboard and must be recessed. It's in the rulebook.