NBA in the context of "North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball"

A backboard is a piece of basketball equipment. It is a raised vertical board with an attached basket consisting of a net suspended from a hoop. It is made of a flat, rigid piece of, often Plexiglas or tempered glass which also has the properties of safety glass when accidentally shattered. It is usually rectangular as used in NBA, NCAA and international basketball. In recreational environments, a backboard may be oval or a fan-shape, particularly in non-professional games.

The top of the hoop is 10 feet (3.05 m) above the ground. Regulation backboards are 6 feet (1.83 m) wide by 3.5 feet (1.07 m) tall. All basketball rims (hoops) are 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter. The inner rectangle on the backboard is 24 inches (61 cm) wide by 18 inches (46 cm) tall, and helps a shooter determine the proper aim and banking for either a layup or distance shot.

In basketball, a technical foul (colloquially known as a "T" or a "tech") is any infraction of the rules penalized as a foul which does not involve physical contact during the course of play between opposing players on the court, or is a foul by a non-player. The most common technical foul is for unsportsmanlike conduct. Technical fouls can be assessed against players, bench personnel, the entire team (often called a bench technical), or even the crowd. These fouls, and their penalties, are more serious than a personal foul, but not necessarily as serious as a flagrant foul (an ejectable offense in leagues below the National Basketball Association (NBA), and potentially so in the NBA).

Technical fouls are handled slightly differently under international rules than under the rules used by the various competitions in the United States. First, illegal contact between players on the court is always a personal foul under international rules, whereas in the United States, such contact is, with some exceptions, a technical foul when the game clock is not running or when the ball is dead. Second, in FIBA play (except for the half-court 3x3 variant, in which individual personal foul counts are not kept), players foul out after five total fouls, technical and personal combined (since 2014, one technical can be included towards the total; committing another risks immediate ejection). The latter rule is similar to that in college, high school, and middle school basketball in the United States. However, in leagues that play 48-minute games such as the NBA, and in some leagues such as the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), players are allowed six personal fouls before being disqualified, and technical fouls assessed against them do not count toward this total. However, unsportsmanlike technicals in the (W)NBA carry a fine, its severity depending on the number of technicals the player has already obtained, and players are suspended for varying amounts of time after accumulating sixteen technicals in the regular season or seven in the playoffs.

In basketball, traveling is a violation of the rules of basketball in which a player takes more than a predefined number of steps while holding the ball. Taking more steps without dribbling than this limit will result in a turnover and possession of the ball for the other team.

In the NBA and FIBA, when a player has taken more than two steps without the ball being dribbled, a traveling violation is called. The NCAA and NFHS do not allow two steps. A travel can also be called via carrying or an unestablished pivot foot. If the pivot foot of a player changes or moves, it is considered traveling.

Battle rap (also known as rap battling) is a type of rapping performed between two or more performers that incorporates boasts, insults, wordplay and disses originating in the African-American community. Battle rap is often performed spontaneously, or freestyled, in live battles known as rap battles, where participants will compete on the same stage to see who has the better verses.

Battle rap was loosely described by 40 Cal, previously a member of American hip hop collective the Diplomats, in the book How to Rap (2009) as an "extracurricular" display of skill, comparing it to the dunk contest in the NBA. Battle rap has been developed into highly organized league events drawing in significant revenue and attention. Mainstream artists such as Diddy, Busta Rhymes, Eminem, Machine Gun Kelly, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Joe Budden and Cassidy have attended or participated in battles to help increase their popularity. Rap battles are often written and performed to impress crowds with technically inventive rapping, and knowing a wide variety of rapping styles and a wide range of MCs as personal inspirations is recommended. Various MCs have started out writing mostly battle raps and battling other MCs before releasing commercial records.

In basketball, a personal foul is a breach of the rules concerning personal contact with an opponent. It is the most common type of foul in basketball. A player fouls out on reaching a limit on personal fouls for the game and is disqualified from participation in the remainder of the game.

Players routinely initiate illegal contact to purposely affect the play, hoping it is seen as too minor to be ruled a foul. The threshold is subjective and varies among officials and from game to game. Most contact fouls are not regarded as unsportsmanlike. However, excessive or unjustified contact is penalized more severely. The NBA refers to these as flagrant fouls; other rulebooks call them unsportsmanlike or disqualifying fouls.