A conventional game of basketball involves five players on the floor at a time from each of the two teams competing. However, teams often have substitute players on the bench who relieve starters. In the NBA, for instance, a team is allowed to have 12 active players throughout the season.
The NBA also indicates on its website that a team must have at least eight active players suited up to play for each regular seasons game. In the US, some high school and college women's basketball teams played a six-on-six game before a 1958 ban by the Office of Civil Rights caused it to gradually fade out.
