Why do they call fouls in basketball?

Answer 1

If you have a bad throw (say your PB throw is 60 feet and you throw a 40 foot toss), it'd look better on a scoresheet if you just scratched that throw. Most throwers don't scratch intentionally unless they have another distance already scored.

Answer 2

They call fouls so no one gets hurt and so things are just plain fair. You see, if I was chasing down the court to block someones shot, and hit them, it wouldn't be fair if I didn't get punished and the player got hurt. I hope you understand!!

-Basketball player

-nomers24

Answer 3

To stop the clock, or to slow the other teams momentum if there are no more timeouts.