You essentially "dribble" in reverse, knocking the balloon/ball down as it tries to rise while running towards the basket. I think we've all probably done this before with a balloon at some point so that's already a thing. This makes that into a part of the upside down basketball game.
To make a basket, you advance to the hoop while doing that reverse dribbling thing, avoiding the other team's players that are trying to steal the balloon-ball and then shoot the ball at the basket, which is about the same hight as a regular basketball hoop but with the net on the topside to catch the balloon. The balloon-ball floats up and hopefully goes in the basket. If you miss, it floats up to the ceiling where it's collected and you're given another balloon-ball.
The start of the game is the same as a regular basketball game where the ref throws the ball up between two players, but they have to swat the ball down to get it or it floats away.
Having a ball float away is a loss of 1 point, last person to touch it loses a point for their team. That would count for missed baskets too since it would miss the hoop and catching net and float away.
The interesting aspect is that I think the score would be changing constantly, much more than with a regular basketball game where only made shots are counted.
Just occurred to me, you could apply the "point off" thing to regular basketball as well, where you lose a point for missing a shot.-- doctorremulac3, Jun 21 2021 (?) Upside Down Basketball in Real Life https://www.reddit....ium=web2x&context=3(Sorta) [AusCan531, Jun 25 2021] The hoop/"basket" should be open; so you can do thrown shots, which go up through, and "slam dunks" (down through, obvs).-- neutrinos_shadow, Jun 21 2021 Australian here. That's how we do it now.-- AusCan531, Jun 22 2021 This game should be played on a court with a low ceiling, so you can dribble the ball, bouncing it along the ceiling-- hippo, Jun 22 2021 + One floating croissant for you! I do think the balloon must be made of something much heavier than normal helium balloons so it can withstand the dribbling… in that event I hope it still will float.-- xandram, Jun 22 2021 [hippo], brilliant! (Why didn't I think of that?)-- neutrinos_shadow, Jun 22 2021 Yes, what neutrinos said and a round ball-shaped bun for doctorJ.-- blissmiss, Jun 22 2021 Agreed.Up and down dribbling. Bouncing up off the ceiling and down against the buoyancy of the balloon/ball.
I kind of want to do this.-- doctorremulac3, Jun 22 2021 I love to dribble. It's one of my favorite ways to exercise. Or last time I played it was.-- blissmiss, Jun 23 2021 ...and, as well as the ceiling being low, so that you can bounce the balloon off it, the hoop should be mounted just above the floor so that you have to push or forcibly throw the balloon towards the floor to get a point.It will, of course, be obvious to the reader that this 'upside-down' form of basketball can be played with a normal basketball rather than a balloon if the entire basketball court and all the players are underwater.-- hippo, Jun 23 2021 //Would midgets have an advantage? Better signing bonuses with pro teams?// Yes, especially if the ceiling height of the court is also very low-- hippo, Jun 23 2021 Velcro boot soles and ceiling-- pocmloc, Jun 23 2021 I love exercise - I could watch it all day-- normzone, Jun 23 2021 Lol!-- doctorremulac3, Jun 23 2021 [pocnloc] Yes, good idea - although on principle, any sport can be improved with the application of copious amounts of Velcro.-- hippo, Jun 24 2021 Any fans of this idea should check out the [link] I just posted for a sorta real life version of what it could look like.-- AusCan531, Jun 25 2021 random, halfbakery