Basketball (FIBA) vs Creator Basketball (NBA Creator Cup) — Same Game, Different Rules

FIBA approves specific balls for official competition. The Molten BG5000 is the official game ball for major FIBA competitions.

Protective accessories such as mouthguards, ankle braces, or knee pads are not established as mandatory for Creator Cup participants in available NBA reporting and are omitted here rather than assumed.

The FIBA court is smaller than the NBA court: Length: 28 meters (91.86 feet) — NBA is 28.65m (94 feet); Width: 15 meters (49.21 feet) — NBA is 15.24m (50 feet); Surface: Hardwood or synthetic surface with uniform bounce characteristics

The sixth-edition 2026 Creator Cup was staged at The Pavilion at UNLV in Las Vegas, Nevada, as the closing game of NBA Summer League's opening night (July 9, 2026), on the venue's standard NBA-spec hardwood court.; The separate All-Star "Season 2" staging of the Creator Cup was played on Creator ...

FIBA teams have a smaller roster than NBA teams: Roster: Maximum 12 players eligible per game (NBA allows 13 active + 2 inactive); On court: 5 players per team at all times; Captain: Each team must designate a captain on the scoresheet. The captain is the only player who may address officials abo...

Sixth-edition (2026 Summer League) format: two creator rosters of nine players each — per NBA.com reporting, this is "two competing creator rosters" rather than a traditional 3-on-3 setup. In the 2026 staging, Team Pierre (coached by Pierre Andresen of Enjoy Basketball) faced Team Darrick (coache...

A FIBA game consists of 4 × 10-minute quarters (40 minutes total), compared to the NBA's 4 × 12-minute quarters (48 minutes): Quarters: 4 periods of 10 minutes each; Half-time interval: 15 minutes (can be extended to 20 minutes for major events); Between quarters: 2-minute interval between the fi...

, a foul on a 2-point attempt is worth two points on a single made free throw; a foul on a 3-point attempt is worth three points on a single made free throw). This rule was adapted from a G League procedure used since the 2019–20 season.

This is a major rule difference from the NBA: Two-point field goal: A shot made from inside the three-point line scores 2 points; Three-point field goal: A shot made from behind the 6.75m (22.15ft) three-point arc scores 3 points. The shooter's feet must be entirely behind the line at the point o...

Baseline scoring values (field goal, three-point shot) follow standard basketball scoring; free-throw scoring during regulation levels follows the One Free Throw Rule described in Section 5, where a single made free throw carries the full point value (1, 2, or 3) of the shooting foul it replaces....

FIBA's traveling rules are stricter than the NBA's: Gather step: FIBA recognizes a gather step (step "zero") since 2017, allowing a player receiving the ball while moving to take two additional steps. However, the interpretation is generally stricter than the NBA's, where the gather step is more ...

Standard basketball violations (traveling, double-dribble, backcourt/shot-clock violations where a shot clock is in use) apply as in standard play; Creator Cup reporting does not document Creator-Cup-specific violation categories beyond the modified shooting-foul procedure covered in Section 5.; ...

FIBA has implemented comprehensive concussion management procedures for all Level 1 and Level 2 competitions: Recognition: Any player suspected of sustaining a concussion must be immediately removed from the game for evaluation; Assessment: The FIBA Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT) is used...

As an NBA-branded exhibition staged inside NBA and Summer League venues (The Pavilion at UNLV; NBA Crossover at the Los Angeles Convention Center), the Creator Cup operates within the host venue's standard event medical and athletic-safety provisi...