<P> The National Basketball Association has had a 24 - second limit since first introducing the clock in the 1950s; and college basketball for both men and women has a 30 - second limit . The WNBA had a 30 - second clock originally; since 2006, the limit is 24 seconds . </P> <P> The NBA (National Basketball Association) had problems attracting fans (and positive media coverage) before the shot clock's inception . This was due to teams running out the clock once they were leading in a game; without the shot clock, teams passed the ball nearly endlessly without penalty . If one team chose to stall, the other team (especially if behind) would often commit fouls to get the ball back following the free throw . Very low - scoring games with many fouls were common, which bored fans . The most extreme case occurred on November 22, 1950, when the Fort Wayne Pistons defeated the Minneapolis Lakers by a record - low score of 19--18, including 3--1 in the fourth quarter . The Pistons held the ball for minutes at a time without shooting (they attempted 13 shots for the game) in order to limit the impact of the Lakers' dominant George Mikan . The Pistons' performance led the St. Paul Dispatch to write "(The Pistons) gave pro basketball a great black eye ." NBA President Maurice Podoloff said, "In our game, with the number of stars we have, we of necessity run up big scores ." A few weeks after the Pistons / Lakers game, the Rochester Royals and Indianapolis Olympians played a six - overtime game with only one shot in each overtime - in each overtime period, the team who had the ball first held the ball for the entirety of the period before attempting a last - second shot . The NBA tried several rule changes in the early 1950s to speed up the game and reduce fouls before eventually adopting the shot clock . </P> <P> The shot clock first came to use in 1954 in Syracuse, New York, where Syracuse Nationals (now the Philadelphia 76ers) owner Danny Biasone and general manager Leo Ferris experimented using a 24 - second version during a scrimmage game . Jack Andrews, longtime basketball writer for The Syracuse Post-Standard, often recalled how Ferris would sit at Danny Biasone's Eastwood bowling alley, scribbling potential shot clock formulas onto a napkin . According to Biasone, "I looked at the box scores from the games I enjoyed, games where they didn't screw around and stall . I noticed each team took about 60 shots . That meant 120 shots per game . So I took 2,880 seconds (48 minutes) and divided that by 120 shots . The result was 24 seconds per shot ." Ferris was singled out by business manager Bob Sexton at the 1954 team banquet for pushing the shot clock rule . Biasone and Ferris then convinced the NBA to adopt it for the 1954--55 season, a season in which the Nationals won the NBA Championship . </P> <P> When it was first introduced by the NBA, the 24 - second shot clock made players so nervous that it hardly came into play, as players were taking fewer than 20 seconds to shoot . According to Syracuse star Dolph Schayes, "We thought we had to take quick shots--a pass and a shot was it--maybe 8--10 seconds...But as the game went on, we saw the inherent genius in Danny's 24 seconds--you could work the ball around (the offensive zone) for a good shot ." </P>

When did the nba add the shot clock