High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The key, officially referred to as the free throw lane by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the restricted area by the international governing body FIBA, and colloquially as the shaded lane and the paint, is an area in a basketball court underneath the basket bounded by the endlines, the foul lanes and the free throw line. Usually painted (although unpainted on some courts with painted perimeters), it is a critical area on the court, where much of the action takes place in a game.