Under FIBA rules, the opening tip sets the arrow; later ties normally become throw-ins.

The ruleset and date used here

The main rulings on this page use the FIBA Official Basketball Rules 2024 v1.0a and Official Basketball Rules Interpretations 2024 v1.0a, both valid from 1 October 2024. They are the current FIBA documents on this page's check date, 26 August 2026.

FIBA has published its 2026 v1.1 rulebook, but that edition does not become valid until 1 October 2026. Its Article 12 retains the mechanics explained here. The separately labelled professional comparison uses the 2025–26 Official NBA Rules. School, collegiate, youth and domestic competitions must be checked against the code they appoint.

“Jump ball” does not always mean another toss

FIBA Article 12.1 calls the referee's toss between two opponents a jump ball. Article 12.4 separately lists jump ball situations: events that require a neutral-possession decision.

Only the first quarter ordinarily starts with the actual jump. After the first team control establishes the arrow, FIBA Article 12.6 replaces every later jump ball situation with an alternating-possession throw-in. Calling a held ball therefore does not mean the two tied-up players will jump.

How to decide the FIBA restart

1. Name the event. Is it the opening start, a jump ball situation, a foul, or an ordinary violation?
2. Ask whether first team control was established. Before it is established, the arrow may still be unset.
3. If the arrow exists, identify the entitled team. Award its throw-in at the Article 12 location and apply the proper shot-clock treatment.
4. Track how the throw-in ends. Legal touch, an entitled-team throw-in violation, or the ball lodging between ring and backboard can end it.
5. Only then update the arrow. A foul before the throw-in ends is penalised but does not consume the entitlement.

What the two jumpers may do

Under FIBA Articles 12.2–12.3, each jumper starts with both feet inside the half of the centre circle nearest that player's own basket and one foot close to the centre line. The toss must rise vertically higher than either jumper can reach. At least one jumper must tap it after it starts its downward flight.

A jumper may not leave the assigned position before the legal tap, catch the ball, or tap it more than twice before it touches a non-jumper or the court. A non-jumper may not have any body part on or over the circle-line cylinder before the tap. If nobody taps a valid toss, it is repeated. A listed restriction violation instead gives the opponents a throw-in nearest the infraction, except directly behind the backboard.

First control—not the direction of the tap—decides entitlement

FIBA Article 12.6.2 gives the first alternating-possession throw-in to the team that does not gain the first team control of a live ball after the opening jump. A legal tap alone is not team control. If Blue taps the ball but Blue then becomes the first team to control it, Red receives the first arrow entitlement.

If Blue violates the opening jump and Red receives a throw-in, the 2024 Interpretations, examples 12-3 and 12-6, set the first entitlement for Blue as soon as the ball is placed at Red's disposal. If a held ball or double foul occurs after a legal tap but before either team gains control, example 12-5 requires another centre-circle jump between the involved players; the arrow cannot yet be used.

FIBA's complete list of jump ball situations

Article 12.4 creates a jump ball situation when:

• A held ball is called.
• The ball goes out of bounds and the referees are in doubt or disagree about which opponent last touched it.
• Both teams violate during an unsuccessful last free throw.
• A live ball lodges between the ring and backboard, except between free throws or after a last free throw followed by the prescribed frontcourt possession throw-in.
• The ball becomes dead while neither team has control nor entitlement.
• Equal penalties cancel, no other foul penalty remains, and neither team had control or entitlement before the first foul or violation.
• The second, third or fourth quarter, or any overtime, is to start.

Once the arrow is set, these situations use alternating possession unless another rule—such as an already completed shot-clock violation—decides the ball first.

Firm shared control is required

FIBA Article 12.1.2 defines a held ball as opponents having one or both hands firmly on the ball so that neither can gain control without undue roughness. A brush, deflection or momentary hand on the ball is not enough. If illegal contact occurs instead, the official applies the foul rule rather than using the arrow to erase it.

The 2024 Interpretations clarify an airborne-player edge case. If a defender legally blocks the ball and both opponents still have hands firmly on it when they return to the court, it is a jump ball situation (12-12). If the defender has released it and the original player lands still holding it, the result is travelling instead (12-13). Under Article 23.2.3, a player moving out of bounds or into the backcourt during an established held ball does not turn the play into a boundary or backcourt violation; the held-ball jump ball situation controls.

Where the throw-in happens and when the arrow moves

The entitled team takes the throw-in nearest the jump ball situation, except directly behind the backboard. To begin quarters two, three and four and every overtime, the throw-in is from the centre line extended opposite the scorer's table, unless further free throws and a possession penalty must be administered.

The arrow points in the direction of the entitled team's opponents' basket. It reverses immediately when the alternating-possession throw-in ends—not when the whistle sounds and not merely when the referee gives the ball to the thrower-in. Article 17.1.2 says the throw-in ends when the ball touches or is legally touched by a player on court, the thrower's team violates, or a live throw-in lodges between the ring and backboard.

Only one of them consumes the pending turn

If the entitled team violates during its alternating-possession throw-in—for example, the thrower steps on court holding the ball or fails to release it within five seconds—Article 12.6.5 gives the opponents a throw-in from the original place and reverses the arrow. The entitled team has used and lost its turn.

A foul by either team before a later quarter or overtime begins, or during the alternating-possession throw-in, is different. Article 12.6.6 says the entitled team does not lose its alternating-possession right. Apply the foul penalty, and keep that team's entitlement for the next jump ball situation. Timing matters: if the pass was already legally touched before the foul, the alternating-possession throw-in had ended and the arrow had already reversed.

The arrow does not guarantee a fresh clock

If the team that had control receives the arrow throw-in after a held ball, FIBA Article 50.2 normally leaves the existing shot-clock time visible; its backcourt eight-second count also continues. If the arrow gives the ball to the other team, Article 29.2.3 provides 24 seconds for a backcourt throw-in or 14 seconds for a frontcourt throw-in.

A ball lodged between ring and backboard has special reset treatment: the 2024 Interpretations 12-16 and 12-17 give the previous offence 14 seconds if it receives the arrow, or the previous defence 24 seconds if it receives the arrow. If a shot misses the ring and the shot clock expires before the apparent held ball, Interpretations 12-26 and 12-27 make the shot-clock violation decisive; the arrow is not used.

A wrong award is not always rewound

Under FIBA Interpretation 12-9, if officials mistakenly give an alternating-possession throw-in to the wrong team, the error can no longer be corrected after the ball touches or is legally touched by a player on court. The team that should have received the ball does not lose its entitlement; it receives the next alternating-possession opportunity.

This is an administration correction, not a rule that every disputed arrow display can be reviewed after play has continued. The scorer operates the arrow, and officials should confirm the entitlement before putting the ball at the thrower's disposal.

The NBA has no possession arrow

The 2025–26 Official NBA Rules use actual jump balls instead. Rule 6, Sections V–VI place held balls, jointly caused out-of-bounds plays and unresolved last-touch decisions at the nearest circle, normally with the two involved players. Other neutral situations—including a lodged ball, specified loose-ball double fouls and each overtime start—use a centre-circle jump between any two opponents then in the game.

The NBA opening jump also allocates later regulation starts without an arrow: the team gaining first possession starts the fourth period with an endline throw-in; the other team starts the second and third. Rule 4, Section VII additionally treats it as a held ball when a defender's touch causes an airborne offensive player to return to the floor in continuous possession in circumstances that would otherwise be travelling. Do not import this NBA wording or restart into a FIBA game.

A tie-up comes before anyone controls the opening tap

Situation: Blue legally taps the opening toss. Before either team controls the live ball, Blue 2 and Red 2 secure it firmly and a held ball is called.

FIBA 2024 ruling: another jump ball at the centre circle, with Blue 2 and Red 2 jumping. The elapsed game-clock time remains used, but the arrow is still unset because no first team control occurred. The decisive source is Interpretation 12-5.

The entitled thrower takes six seconds

Situation: the arrow favours Blue. Blue's thrower still holds the ball after five seconds.

FIBA 2024 ruling: throw-in violation. Red receives the ball from the original throw-in place, and the arrow reverses to Red for the next jump ball situation. Blue's alternating-possession opportunity has been consumed under Articles 12.6.5 and 17.

A defender fouls before the arrow pass is touched

Situation: the arrow favours Blue. After the ball is released but before any on-court player touches it, Red 4 fouls Blue 4.

FIBA 2024 ruling: penalise the foul, but Blue does not lose its pending alternating-possession entitlement. The throw-in had not ended under Article 17.1.2, and Article 12.6.6 protects the entitlement when either team fouls during it.

The same tie-up has a different NBA result

Situation: Blue 3 and Red 3 have hands firmly on the ball near a free-throw circle; neither can gain sole possession without undue roughness.

FIBA 2024 ruling: award the alternating-possession throw-in to the team shown by the arrow at the nearest permitted place.

NBA 2025–26 ruling: Blue 3 and Red 3 jump at the nearest circle under Rule 6, Section VI. The difference is the controlling rules family, not referee preference.

Five shortcuts that produce the wrong ruling

• “The team that taps the opening ball gets possession.” A tap is not team control; first control sets the arrow.
• “Every held ball means the two players jump.” That is an NBA-style outcome, not the normal FIBA restart after the arrow exists.
• “The arrow flips when the official hands over the ball.” The throw-in starts then, but the arrow waits until the throw-in ends.
• “Any foul during the arrow throw-in costs the turn.” FIBA expressly preserves the entitlement when a foul occurs before the throw-in ends.
• “The arrow always gives 24 new seconds.” Prior control, court location, contact with the ring and whether a shot-clock violation already occurred all matter.

Governing-body sources and effective versions

• FIBA — Official Basketball Rules 2024 v1.0a, valid 1 October 2024: Articles 12, 17, 23, 29, 48 and 50
• FIBA — Official Basketball Rules Interpretations 2024 v1.0a, valid 1 October 2024: Article 12 interpretations
• FIBA — official rules download index: current 2024 documents and scheduled 2026 documents
• FIBA — Official Basketball Rules 2026 v1.1, valid 1 October 2026: future-effective Article 12
• National Basketball Association — 2025–26 Official NBA Rules: Rules 4, 6, 7 and 10

Checked on 26 August 2026. FIBA 2024 v1.0a is the controlling baseline until the already-published 2026 v1.1 edition becomes valid on 1 October 2026; Article 12's mechanics are unchanged in that future edition. The NBA comparison is limited to its 2025–26 official code. NCAA, NFHS, WNBA, youth and domestic competition rules are outside the stated rulings and may appoint different jump-ball or alternating-possession procedures.