Can Both Hands Be Used to Dribble in Basketball?

Rule 4, Section II defines a dribble as movement of the ball, caused by a player in control, who throws or taps the ball to the floor. The definition does not name a hand. Either hand, and both in turn, may be used, so a player may switch the ball from the right hand to the left on a dribble, as long as the player is in control of the ball and keeps bouncing it.

What the rules limit is both hands at once. The dribble ends when the dribbler does any of these things:

• touches the ball simultaneously with both hands;
• permits the ball to come to rest while he is in control of it;
• tries for a field goal;
• throws a pass;
• touches the ball more than once while dribbling, before it touches the floor;
• loses control;
• allows the ball to become dead; or
• otherwise gathers the ball.

So the answer to the question is that both hands can be used, but one after the other and never together. Putting two hands on the ball ends the dribble.

Rule 10, Section II sets the violations. A player may not dribble a second time after he has voluntarily ended his first dribble. That is the rule often called double dribble, though the rulebook does not use that name in this section.

The penalty is loss of the ball. The ball goes to the opposing team on the sideline nearest the spot of the violation, but no nearer the baseline than the foul line extended.

The same section forbids two other things. A player may not run with the ball without dribbling it, and a player who is dribbling may not put any part of the hand under the ball and carry it from one point to another, or bring it to a pause and then continue to dribble. Those are the rules behind the call of carrying, or palming.

A player in control of a dribble who steps on or outside a boundary line may not return inbounds and continue the dribble, and may not even be the first to touch the ball after re-establishing a position inbounds.

Rule 10, Section XVI also limits how long a player may dribble with his back or side to the basket. An offensive player in his frontcourt below the free throw line extended may not dribble with his back or side to the basket for more than five seconds. The count ends when the player picks up the ball, dribbles above the free throw line extended, or a defensive player deflects the ball away. The penalty is loss of the ball.

The wording comes from the official 2025-26 NBA playing rules: Rule 4, Section II for the definition and the ways a dribble ends, and Rule 10, Section II for the dribbling violations.

The rules are reviewed each year. This page was checked against the 2025-26 edition. More basketball pages are collected on the NBA hub, and the page about steps in basketball covers the traveling rule.