General Rules

Players may bring bottled water or other beverages. Please put all trash in garbage cans.

Fans and players who are not playing in an on-going game should not sit on sidelines and not interfere with warm-ups or games. 

All players who where given a team uniform, must wear their uniform to each game. If a player shows up without their uniform, the team is penalized with a technical foul. The opposing team shoots the technical foul before the start of the game

Game Rules

If a team does not have four (4) members (on the court) within 10 minutes of the game start time, that team will forfeit.  Three Players are a Forfeit.  Captains should notify their leagues commissioner 48 hours before the game is scheduled to begin, if they have to forfeit.  All Forfeits are recorded in the score-books as 1-0.

A-Division: If a team has four players they can choose from their B-Division sister team. If their sister team is not available then they can choose any B-Division player.  The sister team is the team wearing the same color uniform.

B-Division: If a team has four players they may choose a player from the A-division. A list of eligible players will be provided to all captains. 

Two (2) 20-minute halves per game.

Two (2) time outs per team per half; one (1) full and one (1) thirty-second time-out.

Players foul out after six (6) fouls.

Team gets the bonus (shoot free throw, one and one) after the seventh foul of the half on one team. Double bonus on the tenth team foul (shoot free throws, two shots).

If a player quits in the middle of a game or is ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct,
the player is suspended for the next game.

Clock Stoppage Rules

Two twenty (20) minute continuously running halves, clock stops only for timeouts
until the last two (2) minutes of each half.

During the last two minutes of the second half, the clock will not stop if the scoring
difference is fifteen (15) points or greater.

Overtimes are three minutes. Clock stops for every whistle during the last minute of each overtime period.

One (1) timeout per team for each overtime period.

Guidelines

All players should play at least eight minutes of every half.

A present NYCGBL Board Member must be told prior to the game of any ill or injured players who are suited to play.

The team captain is the manager of the team.

Each team captain will represent all player concerns to the referees.
Only a team captain may address the referee.

The referees will have final say in the calling of penalties, awarding of points and final decisions for all games.

Any further disputes must be brought to the attention of the NYCGBL Board to discuss and resolve.

Captains

Captains are responsible for reviewing the game score-sheet prior to the game and informing the referees of any roster changes at that time.

Captains may only play rostered players.

If it is discovered a captain has played a non-rostered player in a game, the team forfeits.

Playoffs

The top four teams in each division make the playoffs.

Teams are seeded based on their record from the season.

If teams have the same record, the commissioner will use a tiebreaker to determine seeds. The first tiebreaker used is head-to-head victories. If teams are even head-to-head, then point differential of each victory in the head to head games. If a tie still remains, then the commissioner will use a ceremonial coin-flip to decide.

All teams will be responsible for scorekeeping. Most of the time, the lowest seeded team and the losing team will have responsibility to keep score. Please check the schedule before leaving the gym to make sure your team covers your scorekeeping assignment.

These rules may be updated at anytime by the Board of Directors of the New York City Gay Basketball League.