i know very little about basketball, just the basic rules and enough to follow a game
i recently saw on nostupidquestions that they said that mikan and chamberlain made it so that the key was widened from 3 feet to 12 and then 16
now i’ve read everything i’ve been able to find on wikipedia and the likes and i’ve gathered that there’s something called the three second rule that pertains to the key. but i don’t see how that rule affected/was affected by the enlargement.
also, wikipedia says that the enlargement was to make the game more equal to players of all sizes. and i’ve also read that since both players were so tall, the area was widened.
i can’t for the life of me imagine how/why them being tall centers/pivots has anything to do with the key’s width nor the three second rule. is it because when they defend they’re restricted on where they can be inside the key or something?
someone please dumb this down for me i don’t know what im missing
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The key exists to keep players (typically the tallest) from just standing directly underneath the net.
It was widened because they realized that the tallest of the tall players could still easily “reach” the net from outside the original key. To it was widened so the net wasn’t so easily reachable from the edges.
The point it to try and prevent cherry picking, where you just have a really tall dude stand under the net and wait for a pass to just put it in the basket. The key makes the game require more movement which also has the added benefit of making it more entertaining
I’ve always heard the it was because Wilt Chamberlain could straddle the old key. I know it changed around the time he came up but I don’t know if this is true.
What the other comment said and specifics
George Mikan, then Wilt Chamberlain.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_(basketball)
Dimensions of the key area have varied through the history of the game. The lane used to be only 6 feet wide, better resembling the keyhole of a warded lock. In the NBA, the success near the basket of tall center George Mikan led to widening the lane to 12 feet, and similarly Wilt Chamberlain led to the widening of the lane to 16 feet. Since the 2010 FIBA rule amendments (approved in 2008 and implemented following the 2010 FIBA World Championship[1]), its shape is rectangular for games sanctioned by all three associations, 16 feet (4.9 m) wide for both NBA and FIBA keys, and 12 feet (3.7 m) for NCAA and NAIA keys. Prior to those amendments, the key in FIBA-sanctioned tournaments had been a trapezoidal shape.
The OP alluded to the three second rule but I don’t think it was included in the current responses.
The three second rule is that an offensive player cannot be in the key area for more than three seconds at a time. Thus, making the key wider means that players have to get further away from the basket to exit the key and reset their “clock”.
The three seconds is somewhat arbitrary since the refs can’t actually keep a clock on every player. It’s a subjective call.
Players cannot stand in the key for more than 3 seconds or they’ll get called for a foul. That is the rule but it can be hard to monitor. The point of this rule is to not allow offensive players (usually the center/tallest ones) to camp under the basket, get a high lobbing pass and easily score – that would lead to really boring games since there is really no effective defense (other than pushing/elbowing them and getting a foul)
With the older narrow key and players getting over 7 feet tall, it was pretty easy for them to be outside the key and still be within easy reach of the basket.
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