[2] It is recognized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as the sole competent authority in wheelchair basketball worldwide.

Major competition in wheelchair basketball comes from Canada, Australia, the United States, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Japan.

In 1944, Ludwig Guttmann, through the rehabilitation program at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital, in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, adapted existing sports to use wheelchairs.

At around the same time, starting from 1946, wheelchair basketball games were played primarily between American World War II disabled veterans.

Wheelchair basketball helped the veterans become more physically active and improve in skills such as coordination and communication.

Dr. Timothy Nugent founded the National Wheelchair Basketball Association in 1949 and served as commissioner for the first 25 years.

Over the following years, IWBF membership grew in size, and based on the number of National Organizations for Wheelchair Basketball (NOWBs) with active programs, the international federation configured itself into four geographical zones: Africa, Americas, Asia/Oceania and Europe.

Classification is an international regulation for playing wheelchair basketball to harmonize players' different levels of disabilities.

All teams which compete above a recreational level use the classification system to evaluate the functional abilities of players on a point scale of 1 to 4.5.

Forwards and centers are typically under the net, so their chairs have higher seats and therefore less stability, but the height increases the player's reach for shots at the hoop and for rebounds.