A basketball court measures about 28 metres by 15 metres at the professional level.

The longer version

Court dimensions were fixed early and expressed in feet, which is why the professional rectangle converts to something close to 28 by 15 metres rather than a round metric number. The playing surface sits inside boundary lines that are themselves out of play, so a foot on the line counts as out. The three-point arc is drawn from a fixed radius measured to the centre of the basket.

Smaller courts in schools and older gymnasia shorten the corners but keep roughly the same proportions, so spacing habits transfer. The size is not arbitrary: it is large enough that a defender cannot cover the whole width, and short enough that a team can retreat inside a shot clock. Compared with other indoor court sports the rectangle is fairly compact, which is part of why the tempo stays high.

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