How long is the NBA shot clock?
24 seconds. It arrived in 1954 so teams would stop stalling.
NBA Trivia Questions and Answers
These are NBA trivia questions and answers from Starting 5 Trivia, the free daily game. The list below is evergreen practice: facts the daily game draws from, written out so you can read them without a shot clock. They are not today’s five. Today’s game is live on the homepage, and a miss or a timeout still does not reveal the correct player.
Each daily game is 12 multiple choice questions. Five real players stand on the floor, the question describes one of them, and you have 10 seconds. Faster correct answers score more, and the 4th quarter counts double. A full game is about a minute. No account is required.
What a daily game asks
The five players stay on the floor for all 12 questions. Three questions make a quarter, and four quarters make the game. You play once. The day is a UTC day, so the same five and the same 12 questions are the game everywhere, from midnight UTC until the next midnight. A right pick is marked right. A miss does not show the correct player, and neither does a timeout.
Scoring follows the shot clock. A correct answer with at least 7 seconds left is worth 3 points. With 4, 5, or 6 seconds left it is worth 2. With fewer than 4 seconds left it is worth 1. The 4th quarter doubles those values to 6, 4, and 2. Answer all three questions in a quarter correctly and the clean sweep adds 1 point in each of the first three quarters, and 2 points in the fourth. There is no pay-to-retry and no second game until the next day drops.
This is multiple choice trivia, not a lineup guessing game. You are not asked to name a team’s starting five. The players are already given. The question describes one of them, and you pick that player. Championships, scoring records, drafts, awards, and the nights people still argue about are the usual subjects, from the 1960s through the current season.
When you finish, your line lands on the daily leaderboard. The order is total points, then field-goal percentage, then average response time, then who submitted first. The person at the top is that day’s champion. After the day closes, the top 20 finishers earn season score, from 20 points for first place down to 1 point for 20th. An account saves your streak and your career totals. You can play today’s game without one, in the browser or in the free iPhone app.
The easy ones people still miss
When did the NBA add the three-point line?
1979-80. The ABA had it first.
Who has the most NBA championships as a player?
Bill Russell. Eleven, all with Boston.
Who scored 100 points in a game?
Wilt Chamberlain. Hershey, Pennsylvania. March 2, 1962. The Warriors beat the Knicks 169-147.
Who passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the all-time regular-season scoring lead?
LeBron James. February 2023. Kareem had held it since 1984.
What is Michael Jordan's NBA Finals record?
6-0.
Who was the first player drafted in 2003?
LeBron James, Cleveland.
A little meaner
What number did Kobe Bryant wear after 8?
24.
Which team did the NBA add in 1988 along with the Heat?
Charlotte Hornets (then the Hornets). Miami and Charlotte entered together. Minnesota and Orlando came a year later.
The shot clock is 24. What was the 24-second idea supposed to stop?
Holding the ball. Syracuse's Danny Biasone pushed it after too many nights that looked like a meeting.
None of the practice facts above are today’s Starting 5. Today’s five are on a 10 second clock. Play that game from the homepage.