What Should the Referee Do Prior to a Basketball Game?

Rule 2, Section I names the game officials: a Crew Chief, a Referee, an Umpire and a Replay Center Official. They are assisted by an official scorer, two trained timers (one for the game clock and one for the shot clock) and a courtside administrator. The crew chief is the official in charge.

Rule 2, Section II lists the duties.

If a coach wants to discuss a rule or an interpretation before a game or between periods, the officials must ask the other coach to be present, and the same applies if the officials want to discuss a game situation with either coach. The designated official tosses the ball at the start of the game. If the officials disagree about whether a goal counts, the crew chief decides, and he or she decides matters on which the scorers and timers disagree.

The rules put some duties on the teams. At least 30 minutes before the game is scheduled to begin, the scorers must be supplied with the name and number of each player who will start. A team must have a minimum of eight players dressed and eligible to play in each preseason and regular season game, and nine in each Play-In and playoff game. Officials must report a team's failure to have eight players to begin the game.

Rule 2, Section I adds some details to the list of names. The courtside administrator is stationed at the scorer's table to make communication easier between the Replay Center Official, the officials on the court, the official scorer and the other people at the table. All of the officials and the courtside administrator must be approved by the League Office, and the officials wear the uniform the NBA prescribes.

Several duties in Section II reach beyond the pregame period but start before it. The crew chief is the official in charge. The Replay Center Official makes the final ruling on all replays under Rule 13, except for flagrant fouls and altercations, and the duties that go with the coach's challenge are set out in Rule 14, Section IV. Officials must also report any atypical or unique incident to the league's Basketball Operations and Referee Operations departments by e-mail, and the same applies to flagrant, punching or fighting fouls and to a team's failure to have eight players to begin the game.

The rulebook does not try to list every situation. Rule 2, Section III says the officials have the power to make decisions on any point the rules do not specifically cover, and that the League Office is told of each such decision at the earliest possible moment. Section IV adds that the crew chief has the authority to set aside or question a decision about a rule interpretation made by either of the other officials, so a pregame decision about equipment or a warm-up problem ends with the crew chief and not with a single official.

The wording comes from Rule 2 and Rule 3 of the official 2025-26 NBA playing rules.

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 basketball air pressure covers the ball.