Basketball Trivia for Kids
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
8correct to beat the crowd
This basketball trivia for kids quiz has 48 free questions with answers and covers the game the way a young fan learns it: how many players are on the court, what a dribble and a rebound are, who invented the sport with a peach basket, and the stars kids actually talk about, from Michael Jordan and Kobe to LeBron, Steph Curry, Giannis, Wemby, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. There are questions on the NBA and WNBA, March Madness, the Dream Team, Space Jam, Air Jordans and the Harlem Globetrotters too. Everything is answerable by kids aged about 7 to 12 who watch some basketball, and the hardest questions are the kind an older sibling or a coach might know. Use it at practice, on the drive to a game, or as a family challenge at halftime. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's article on the player, team or rule, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What starts a basketball game?
A jump ball
A jump ball starts the game, and in the NBA the team that loses that opening tip gets the ball to begin the second and third quarters.
Q 02What follows an NBA player's sixth personal foul?
Disqualification
Disqualification follows, but an NBA team can't drop below five players, so with no eligible sub left the player stays in and the team is charged a technical foul.
Q 03Who invented basketball?
James Naismith
James Naismith was asked to invent an indoor game to keep students active through the winter, and in December 1891 he wrote 13 rules for it.
Q 04What did the very first basketball hoops actually look like?
Peach baskets
The inventor nailed two peach baskets to the gym balcony; they kept their bottoms at first, so someone had to fish the ball out after every score.
Q 05In which country was basketball's inventor born?
Canada
Canada is where basketball's inventor was born, in Almonte, Ontario; he later told his student Phog Allen the game needed no coach, and Allen became the father of basketball coaching.
Q 06In basketball, what is it called when a player bounces the ball while moving?
Dribbling
Dribbling ends once a player touches the ball with both hands, and starting to dribble again is a double dribble, which hands the ball to the other team.
Q 07What is a 'rebound' in basketball?
Grabbing a missed shot
Grabbing a missed shot is a rebound: a defender's rebound wins the ball for his team, while an offensive rebound gives the shooting team another chance to score.
Q 08In basketball, what is it called when a player runs with the ball without bouncing it?
Traveling
Traveling is called when a player holding the ball takes too many steps or moves the pivot foot, and the other team gets the ball.
Q 09What is a slam dunk?
Jamming the ball into the hoop
Jamming the ball into the hoop is a slam dunk; college basketball banned dunking in 1967, a rule many tied to the dominance of Lew Alcindor, later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Q 10Which NBA team was based outside the US in 2024-25?
Raptors
The Raptors joined the NBA in 1995 alongside the Vancouver Grizzlies, but the Grizzlies moved to Memphis in 2001, leaving Toronto's Raptors as the league's only team outside the US.
Q 11Which arena is home to the NBA's New York Knicks?
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden is the Knicks' home; the name Knicks comes from Knickerbockers, a pen name Washington Irving used that later meant descendants of New York's Dutch settlers.
Q 12Which team had won the most NBA championships, 18, by the end of the 2024-25 season?
Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics traded Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan to St. Louis in 1956 for the draft rights to Bill Russell, who went on to win 11 titles with Boston.
Q 13Which team did Michael Jordan win six championships with?
Chicago Bulls
Q 21Which team drafted Shaquille O'Neal first overall in 1992?
Orlando Magic
The Orlando Magic reached the 1995 Finals with Shaquille O'Neal, but Houston swept them, and in 1996 he left to join Los Angeles.
Q 22Which WNBA team drafted Caitlin Clark first overall in 2024?
Indiana Fever
The Indiana Fever drafted Caitlin Clark after she chose to turn pro instead of using the extra college season she had been granted because of COVID-19.
Q 23Which college did Caitlin Clark star for?
Iowa
Iowa is where Caitlin Clark became the top scorer in NCAA Division I history, yet the Hawkeyes lost the national title game in both 2023 and 2024.
The Chicago Bulls won three straight titles before Jordan quit in 1993 to play minor-league baseball; after he came back in 1995, they won three more in a row.
Q 14In the movie Space Jam, Michael Jordan plays basketball with which cartoon characters?
The Looney Tunes
The Looney Tunes need Michael Jordan in Space Jam (1996) because the aliens they must beat in a basketball game have stolen the talent of NBA players.
Q 15Which shoe company makes Michael Jordan's famous sneaker line?
Nike
Nike built its Jumpman logo from a photo inspired by a 1984 magazine shot of Jordan leaping in a ballet-style pose; that photographer sued Nike over it and lost.
Q 16Which team picked LeBron James first in the 2003 draft, straight out of high school?
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers lost LeBron James to the Miami Heat in 2010, but he came back in 2014 and led them to their first NBA title in 2016.
Q 17Which team drafted Stephen Curry seventh overall in 2009?
Golden State Warriors
The Golden State Warriors got Stephen Curry at No. 7 after the Minnesota Timberwolves used the two picks just before, 5 and 6, on Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn.
Q 18What was Kobe Bryant's nickname?
The Black Mamba
The Black Mamba was a nickname Kobe Bryant gave himself, and he later named his 2018 book about how he played The Mamba Mentality.
Q 19Kobe Bryant won an Academy Award for what kind of film?
An animated short
An animated short, Dear Basketball, won Kobe Bryant his Oscar; it grew from the poem he wrote in 2015 to announce he would retire.
Q 20Which skill was Shaquille O'Neal famously poor at?
Free throws
Free throws were Shaquille O'Neal's weak spot, so opponents fouled him on purpose, a tactic nicknamed Hack-a-Shaq.
Q 24What is Giannis Antetokounmpo's nickname?
The Greek Freak
The Greek Freak, Giannis Antetokounmpo, grew up in Athens selling sunglasses and watches on the streets to help his immigrant parents, who struggled to find work.
Q 25Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-plus star picked first in 2023, comes from which country?
France
France is Victor Wembanyama's home country; he led the French team to the 2024 Olympic final in Paris, where it lost to the United States and took silver.
Q 26Which team drafted Victor Wembanyama?
San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs won the 2023 draft lottery and took Victor Wembanyama, while the Detroit Pistons, the NBA's worst team that season, dropped to the fifth pick.
Q 27Which famous team plays funny trick-shot exhibition games and usually beats the Washington Generals?
Harlem Globetrotters
The Harlem Globetrotters play real games, and in 1971 they lost to the Generals, then playing as the New Jersey Reds, on a last-second shot.
Q 28What is the whistled theme song of basketball's famous trick-shot exhibition team?
Sweet Georgia Brown
Sweet Georgia Brown was a 1925 song, and Brother Bones's whistled 1949 version became famous once the trick-shot team adopted it as its anthem.
Q 29What is the nickname of the big college basketball tournament held every spring?
March Madness
March Madness was a name the NCAA used only for the men's tournament until 2022, when a gender equity review led it to extend the name to the women's tournament too.
Q 30Which college has won the most men's NCAA tournament titles?
UCLA
UCLA won 10 of its titles under coach John Wooden, whose teams won 88 games in a row until Notre Dame beat them 71-70 in 1974.