Q&A: Height of a Basketball Hoop

We’ve recently gotten a number search hits from people looking for information on how high to hang a basketball hoop. While I’ve written in the past about installing a basketball hoop (see also here), I never actually addressed this issue, so…

Here goes.

The regulation height for a basketball hoop is 10 feet above the ground (that’s the height at which the rim should be placed). However, when you’re dealing with kids, it’s sometimes lower. For example, Son #1 played in a ‘Mites’ league this past winter, and the rim for that age group (7 and 8 year olds) was set at 8 feet above the ground. Since we installed an adjustable height hoop, we can set it wherever we want, and it can grow with the boys.

Aand just in case you have a really big driveway, here’s a bit of bonus information… The free throw line is 15 feet from the backboard, the lane is 12 feet wide, and the three-point line for high school and college is 19′ 9″ from the center of the hoop.

This article is part of our Parenting Q&A series.