There are going to be circumstances that allow you to go down and pick the basketball up on the court. However, if you’re new to the sport, this could bring up a number of questions because you don’t want to do anything against the rules. The main question that comes to mind is, can you pick up the ball with two hands in basketball?
To answer this question, yes, you are absolutely allowed to pick the ball up with two hands in basketball. Now, there are certain situations where you can’t pick up the ball at all on the court, which we’ll get to later. But if it’s legal for you to pick the ball up, there’s nothing stopping you from grabbing it with two hands when compared to using only one hand.
Don’t worry though, we’re going to be talking much more about the reasons you might not be able to pick the ball up at all and why you can definitely use both hands when you can.
Nothing Stopping You From Using Two Hands
The biggest thing to mention is that there’s nothing stopping you from picking up the basketball with two hands as opposed to just one. If you’re allowed to pick the ball up, there isn’t a referee or opposing player that will stop you if they notice that you’re using just one hand instead of two. That’s not a real rule in any type of professional league, and instead it’s just a matter of preference.
If you would rather use one hand to pick up the ball and use the other to fend off defenders, then you can absolutely do that. If you want to use both hands to ensure that you grab it tightly and don’t drop it, then you can do that as well. Don’t get too caught up over how many hands you should be using when picking up the basketball.
Can’t Pass To Yourself
Now, let’s dive into some of the reasons that you can’t pick up a basketball at all legally. The first comes when you try to pass it to yourself. If you’re dribbling the basketball and realize that you have a defender standing really close to you, you might be thinking that you need to pass it out to a teammate. You look around and pass it to the closest teammate, but that teammate turns early and doesn’t see your pass. When you see a loose ball like that, it might be really easy to feel like you should run over there and grab it before the other team does. If you touch this loose ball, it would be called a travel and possession would go to the other team.
The same rule would apply if you tossed the ball straight into the air, and then run over and grab it before it touches the ground. So, it might be enticing to grab a loose ball at all costs, but sometimes you would be traveling if you do so carelessly.
Be Careful During Inbounds
When you’re inbounding the basketball, you might accidentally fall into the same exact situation, which is why we must talk about it. If you have nobody around you to pass the ball to, and that five second countdown is rapidly approaching, you have to remember that you can’t pass it to yourself. So, you’d be forced to just toss the ball in play and hope that your team gets it before them. When doing so, you might forget and try to pick it up when you realize that the other team is way ahead of your teammates. Of course, this would be a similar violation to the last one we just talked about.
The thing is, it’s easy to forget about why the ball is loose in the first place when you have everything moving around you so quickly. Now, picking the ball up and causing a violation could help in certain instances, but we’ll get to that one later. For now, it should be made clear that when you’re inbounding the basketball, you can’t just go and roll it to yourself in play.
Sometimes It Can Be Beneficial
Surprisingly enough, there are instances where picking the ball up and causing a violation could be beneficial to your team. For example, you might have received a pass that was just a little too far out of your reach. That ball would go on to roll past the halfcourt line, making it a violation if you touched it again before it rolled out of bounds. However, you see that a defender is sprinting after it to try and get an easy layup. In an effort to stop that, you could pick the ball up and force the referees to call the backcourt violation and stop the possibility of a fastbreak happening.
This is more of a difficult play to remember in the moment because you’re trying not to pick up violations even if they don’t go against you. Though it’s something that we see in many professional basketball leagues. We also see these professional players forget this from time to time also. Proving that everybody is human at the end of the day.
Difference Between One Or Two Hands
Before we wrap this up, we should just talk a little more about the difference between picking the ball up with one hand or two hands. And that difference is nothing. Worrying about how many hands you use to pick up the ball isn’t something that you should be entirely stressed over, and it’d probably be better if you focused on other aspects of the game instead.
The only real difference is that you have another hand to work with if you use one instead of two. Using just one hand allows you to keep defenders at bay a little bit by shielding them off, while two hands let them get right up onto the ball. Though again, one hand forces you to have less control while two hands keep it secure and tight. It’s all a matter of preference, and something that you’ll realize doesn’t take much thinking later on.