Scope
The ruleset and version used here
This page applies 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 controlling international five-on-five documents on this page's check date, 26 August 2026. The main provisions are Articles 2.5.3, 14, 22, 26 and 43.
The separately labelled NBA section uses the 2025–26 Official NBA Rules, Rules 9 and 10. NCAA, NFHS, WNBA, youth, wheelchair, 3x3 and domestic competition rules are not inferred from either code.
Keep them separate
“In the lane” can describe three different questions
- FIBA offensive three seconds: time spent by an attacking player in the opponents' restricted area during a live, running-clock frontcourt possession.
- Free-throw positioning: who may occupy a rebound place and when the shooter or other players may cross their boundary.
- NBA defensive three seconds: a separate NBA guarding restriction that does not exist in FIBA's five-on-five Article 26.
A painted-lane position is therefore not automatically an offence. The phase, team control, clock status, player role and appointed rulebook all matter.
Article 26 test
All three conditions must continue past three seconds
- Location: the player is in the opponents' restricted area.
- Control: that player's team controls a live ball in its frontcourt.
- Clock: the game clock is running.
FIBA Article 26.1.1 requires more than three consecutive seconds with those conditions. The count is player-specific: one attacker's exit does not reset another attacker who remains in the area.
Throw-in edge case: team control exists when the live ball is at the thrower's disposal, but the game clock has not started. FIBA interpretation 26-5 therefore says an attacker may remain in the restricted area for more than three seconds during that frontcourt throw-in without violating Article 26.
Leaving the area
Both feet outside are required
FIBA Article 26.1.3 says a player is established outside only when both feet are on the court outside the restricted area. A player with one foot still in the area, or on a boundary line that forms part of it, has not completed the exit.
Article 26.1.2 requires an allowance for a player who is attempting to leave, so the whistle is not mechanically tied to an invisible stopwatch at exactly 3.0 seconds. But that allowance is for a genuine exit; it does not create fresh permission to stop, screen or return to the basket.
Leaving the court over the endline is not a legal reset. FIBA interpretation 26-1 says a player who goes out there to avoid three seconds and then re-enters the restricted area has committed the violation.
Shot allowance
A real scoring action changes the judgment
FIBA Article 26.1.2 requires allowances when:
- The player is attempting to leave the restricted area.
- The player is in the area while that player or a team-mate is in the act of shooting and the ball is leaving or has just left the shooter's hands.
- The player, after being in the area for less than three consecutive seconds, dribbles there to shoot for a goal.
The last allowance is narrow. Receiving the ball before three seconds does not create unlimited post-up time; the player must be dribbling to shoot. If the ball leaves a player's hands on a shot, team control ends under FIBA Article 14.1.3. A later offensive rebound creates new team control and therefore a new Article 26 count.
Outcome
Offensive three seconds is a violation, not a foul
Under FIBA Articles 22 and 26, the whistle makes the ball dead and the opponents receive a throw-in from the place nearest the infraction, except directly behind the backboard. No personal foul is charged and no free throws are awarded merely for three seconds.
Neither an ordinary three-second judgment nor ordinary free-throw encroachment appears among the reviewable situations in FIBA 2024 Appendix F.3. It is therefore not a stand-alone Instant Replay System review or Head Coach's Challenge ground. A separate listed issue arising on the play, such as goaltending in an eligible situation, is reviewed only within Appendix F's limits.
Do not transfer the NBA defensive-three-second penalty to a FIBA game. FIBA has no equivalent defensive count or technical free throw in Article 26.
Free-throw timing
Release frees the rebounders, but not the shooter
FIBA 2024 Article 43 gives each group a different boundary:
- Shooter: release within five seconds after the referee places the ball at the shooter's disposal; do not touch the free-throw line or enter the restricted area until the ball enters the basket or touches the ring; do not fake the attempt.
- Players in rebound places: occupy only an entitled alternating place; do not enter the restricted area or neutral zone, or leave the rebound place, until the ball has left the shooter's hands; do not distract the shooter.
- Players not in rebound places: remain behind the free-throw line extended and behind the three-point line until the free throw ends.
A team is entitled to its designated rebound places but need not fill them. FIBA interpretation 43-2 says a player who declines an entitled place must remain in the outside-player position. When the free throw is to be followed by another set of free throws or by a possession throw-in, Article 43.2.6 puts all players behind the free-throw line extended and three-point line.
Free-throw remedies
The make or miss and the offender decide the result
- Shooter violates on a made free throw: cancel the point. Give the opponents a throw-in from the free-throw line extended unless another free throw or possession penalty remains.
- Anyone other than the shooter violates and the free throw is made: count the point and disregard the violation.
- Opponent violates and the free throw misses: award the shooter a substitute free throw.
- Shooter or shooter's team-mate violates on an unsuccessful last free throw: give the opponents a throw-in from the free-throw line extended, unless they already have a further possession entitlement.
- Both teams violate on the unsuccessful last free throw: a jump-ball situation occurs and FIBA's alternating-possession procedure decides the throw-in.
These are FIBA Article 43.3 outcomes. A contact foul, goaltending or basket interference during the attempt is a different infraction and must be administered under its own article.
NBA 2025–26
The NBA adds defensive three seconds
NBA Rule 10 Sections VI–VII contains both offensive and defensive counts. The offensive rule is broadly similar but uses the NBA free-throw lane, including the area extending four feet beyond the endline, and awards the opponents a sideline throw-in at the free-throw line extended.
For defensive three seconds, the count starts with offensive team control in the frontcourt. A defender in the 16-foot lane or its four-foot endline extension must actively guard an opponent within three seconds. “Actively guarding” means being within arm's length and in a guarding position. A defender guarding the ball-handler may stay in the lane without satisfying that arm's-length test, but must guard someone or exit once another defender takes the ball-handler or the pass is made.
The NBA count is suspended during a shot, loss of team control, active guarding, a complete lane exit, or when legality is imminent. The penalty is one technical free throw; the offense retains a sideline throw-in at the free-throw line extended, and the shot clock stays at its interrupted value or is raised to 14, whichever is greater. If the whistle comes during a successful field-goal attempt, the violation is ignored and play resumes after the basket.
NBA free throws
Do not import FIBA's five-second and outside-player limits
NBA 2025–26 Rule 9 gives the shooter ten seconds, not FIBA's five. Lane-space players and players behind the arc generally become free to move on release, while the shooter may not cross the plane of the free-throw line until the ball touches the ring, touches the backboard or the free throw ends.
The NBA also distinguishes a free throw that will remain in play from one after which the ball will become dead. For an attempt that will not remain live, ordinary early movement produces no lane violation because the rule says no rebounding advantage is gained; opponent disconcertion can still earn a substitute free throw. That is a genuine code difference, not a general basketball principle.
Worked case 1
The post player starts a move at 2.8 seconds
Situation: A1 has been in the opponents' restricted area for 2.8 seconds, receives the ball and immediately dribbles toward the basket to shoot.
FIBA 2024 ruling: allow the scoring move under Article 26.1.2. The decisive facts are that A1 had been there for less than three consecutive seconds and was dribbling to shoot. If A1 stops the move and continues holding or backing down, that allowance no longer supplies a reason to delay the call.
Worked case 2
One foot clears the painted line
Situation: after three seconds, A2 steps across a side boundary of the restricted area but keeps the trailing foot on the line.
FIBA 2024 ruling: A2 is not yet established outside. Article 26.1.3 requires both feet on the court outside; the line remains part of the restricted area. The official should recognise a genuine attempt to leave, but the partial step does not reset the count.
Worked case 3
The shot misses everything and the shooter rebounds
Situation: A3 shoots after 2.5 seconds in the restricted area. The ball misses ring and backboard, and A3 catches it.
FIBA 2024 ruling: no three-second violation from the first count. FIBA interpretation 26-4 says team control ended on the release and new control began on the rebound. A new count now starts if the Article 26 conditions continue. Other rules may still decide whether that shot and recovery were legal.
Worked case 4
The defender enters early and the last free throw misses
Situation: on the last free throw, B1 leaves a rebound place and enters the restricted area before A1 releases. A1's attempt misses.
FIBA 2024 ruling: B1 violated Article 43.2.4. Award A1 a substitute free throw under Article 43.3.3. If A1's original attempt had scored, the point would count and B1's violation would be disregarded.
Worked case 5
The shooter misses the ring after an early defensive entry
Situation: on the last free throw, B2 enters before release and A2's shot then misses the ring.
FIBA 2024 ruling: both teams have violated: B2 entered early and A2 failed to make the ball enter the basket or touch the ring. FIBA interpretation 43-4 makes this a jump-ball situation, administered with the alternating-possession arrow.
Decision path
How to analyse the replay
- Name the rulebook. FIBA and NBA do not share one lane rule.
- Name the phase. Live half-court play or a free throw?
- For FIBA three seconds, test all conditions. Opponents' restricted area, live frontcourt team control and running game clock.
- Check the exit or shot allowance. Both feet outside, a genuine attempt to leave, or a qualifying act of shooting/dribble to shoot?
- For a free throw, identify the player group. Shooter, rebound-place player or outside player.
- Fix the timing point. Release, ring contact or the end of the free throw, depending on that player's restriction.
- Apply the named code's remedy. Make or miss, offending team, final attempt and any remaining possession entitlement change the result.
Common mistakes
Four claims to avoid
- “Any player in the paint for three seconds violates.” FIBA Article 26 applies in the opponents' area only during the specified control and clock conditions.
- “One foot out resets the count.” FIBA requires both feet on the court outside.
- “Everyone can enter when the shooter releases.” That is the FIBA release point for rebound-place players, not for the shooter or players outside the rebound places.
- “Defensive three seconds is universal.” It is an NBA rule in the comparison here; FIBA 2024 has no corresponding defensive violation.
1 October 2026
FIBA has published the next edition, but it is not yet effective
FIBA Official Basketball Rules 2026 v1.1 becomes valid on 1 October 2026. Its Article 26 repeats the three-second conditions and allowances used above. The free-throw provisions move from Article 43 to Article 44 and retain the entry limits and remedies described here. Until that effective date, the 2024 v1.0a articles remain the controlling FIBA text.
Official references
Governing-body sources and effective versions
Checked on 26 August 2026 against the then-effective FIBA 2024 rulebook and interpretations, FIBA's published successor taking effect 1 October 2026, and the season-labelled NBA 2025–26 rulebook for the labelled comparisons only. Competition regulations and national federation adaptations may supplement the FIBA baseline; college, school, youth, 3x3, wheelchair and local codes require separate checking.