The Difference Between Fouls

Many people believe that there is only one kind of foul in a basketball game, but in actuality there are a few different types of fouls and not all fouls mean the same thing.

A foul is an infraction of the rules which is charged and is penalized.

A Personal foul is a player foul which has to do with illegal contact with an opponent while the ball in play, which prevents the opponent from making normal defensive and offensive movements.

Contact on or by an airborne shooter after the ball has become dead is considered a personal foul.

A Common foul is a personal foul which is neither flagrant nor intentional nor committed against a player trying or tapping for a field goal nor a part of a double, simultaneous, or multiple foul.

The fouls mentioned above are the regular fouls you see called throughout a game. Some examples of common fouls are player-control fouls, which is an offensive foul called on the ball handler, a team-control foul, which is a foul on the team with possession of the ball but not on the specific player with the ball. The reason common fouls are a separate classification within personal fouls is because common fouls do not occur on the player in the act of shooting.

An Intentional Foul is a personal or technical foul that does not necessarily have to be premeditated and does not always have to do with the viciousness of the act. Intentional fouls can include but are limited to:

            - Contact that neutralizes an opponent’s obvious advantageous position.

            - Contact with an opponent who is clearly away from the ball and not involved with a play.

- Contact that is specifically designed to stop the clock or to prevent the clock from running and is not a legitimate attempt to play the ball/player.

- Contact that is deemed excessive with an opponent while playing the ball.

- Contact with a thrower-in

 A Flagrant foul can be a personal or technical foul of a violent or savage nature , or a foul that displays unacceptable conduct which is considered a technical noncontact foul . Contact does not necassarily have to be intentional.  If it is personal, it would involve  striking, kicking, and kneeing but it is not limited to those specific cases. If  dead-ball contact or noncontact at any time which is extreme or persistent, vulgar or abusive conduct, it would be considered technical. Fighting is a flagrant act.

Here are some examples when a Technical foul should be called:

            - A foul by a nonplayer.

            - A noncontact foul by a player (Example= taunting)

- An intentional or flagrant contact foul while the ball is dead, except a foul by an airborne shooter.

- A direct technical, which  is charged to the head coach because of his/her actions.

- An indirect technical foul, which is charged to the head coach as a result of a bench technical foul given to team bench personnel, an example being a player on the bench taunting.

 More information can be found in the NFHS Rule Book, Rule 4 Section 19

Getting into intentional, technical, and flagrant fouls gets interesting. Reading the rules gets kind of difficult but I am going to do my best to explain it.

The intentional foul explanation is actually really good and should be easy to understand. The most import thing to remember is that it does not have to be premeditated to be deemed an intentional foul. When an intentional foul is called the player who was fouled is given two shots and the ball is awarded to his/her team at the nearest out-of-bounds location to where the foul occurred. An interesting part of this rule that no one knows is letter “e.” Contact with the inbounder is an intentional foul, which means even if a player is going to try and block the inbounder and accidentally gets hit by the defender that should result in an intentional foul.

Intentional Foul Examples

The best way to look at a flagrant foul is unsportsmanlike conduct or an attempt to injure another player although it is not just limited to that. An important thing to remember is any player given a flagrant foul is ejected and may not return to the game. An important thing to note is players who leave the bench during a fight are assessed flagrant fouls and disqualified. It does not matter if the join in the fight or not. Look at this video and you be the judge. How many flagrant fouls should be called? (If you do not like the squeamish and do not like the site of blood you might want to avoid this video). 

Flagrant Foul Situation

Technical fouls are most commonly called when dealing with coaches or players arguing calls or non-calls made by the officials. Any foul language used on the court or directed at an official always results with at least one technical foul. Two direct technicals given to a player or coach will result in an ejection. For coaches however, they can be given indirect technicals which usually have to do with issues players on his/her bench. So if a coach is given an indirect technical after receiving a technical earlier in the game he/she is allowed to remain in the game. If he/she receives another technical in any way he/she will be ejected.

Technical Foul Video Clip