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.

The key, in all games, starting with FIBA's amendments to its rules in 2006 (to be first implemented after the 2010 FIBA World Championship), is rectangular. Prior to 2006, the key in FIBA-sanctioned tournaments (mostly basketball played outside the United States, and almost all international tournaments including the World Championships and the Olympics) was trapezoidal in shape. Both NBA and FIBA keys are 16 feet (4.9 m) wide, while NCAA keys are narrower at 12 feet (3.7 m).

Key may refer to:

Basketball is a team sport, the objective being to shoot a ball through a basket horizontally positioned to score points while following a set of rules. Usually, two teams of five players play on a marked rectangular court with a basket at each width end. Basketball is one of the world's most popular and widely viewed sports.

A regulation basketball hoop consists of a rim 18 inches in diameter and 10 feet high mounted to a backboard. A team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the basket during regular play. A field goal scores two points for the shooting team if a player is touching or closer to the basket than the three-point line, and three points (known commonly as a 3 pointer or three) if the player is behind the three-point line. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but additional time (overtime) may be issued when the game ends with a draw. The ball can be advanced on the court by bouncing it while walking or running (dribbling) or throwing (passing) it to a teammate. It is a violation to move without dribbling the ball (traveling), to carry it, or to double dribble (to hold the ball with both hands then resume dribbling).

Jordan Peele (born February 21, 1979) is an American actor and comedian known as a cast member on MADtv from 2003–2008 and currently for his recurring role as Dr. Brian on the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital. Peele currently stars with Keegan-Michael Key in the Comedy Central sketch show Key & Peele.

Peele joined the cast of MADtv in 2003 as a featured performer, for the ninth season. Around the time Keegan-Michael Key joined the cast as a featured performer, it was assumed that Key would be chosen over Peele. However, Peele created enough memorable characters—including Funkenstein and Superstitious Knight Ty Gray—and would be carried over to the next season.

Peele also impressed with his various celebrity impersonations, which included favorites Caroll Spinney (as the voice of Big Bird), Ja Rule, James Brown, Flavor Flav, Justin Guarini, Montel Williams, Morgan Freeman, and Forest Whitaker.

Jordan was nominated for a 2008 Emmy for his song parody "Sad Fitty Cent," a music video parody about 50 Cent lamenting over his rivalry with Kanye West. The lyrics were, according to the music video, written by Jordan himself, and he was also involved in arranging its music.

Mitchell Smith (born 1935) is an American author writing crime fiction and science fiction.

Mitchell Smith was born in upper New York State, and went to military school on Mississippi's Gulf Coast. He attended Columbia University where he studied English and history. He enlisted in the army working in military intelligence stationed in Berlin during the Cold War. After leaving the army, he started his career in writing. He currently lives in Whatcom County, Washington.

Smith started his writing career with pulp Westerns, including several "erotic Westerns" (in the Buckskin imprint) published under the pen-name of Roy LeBeau, and then switching to crime novels. His novels include Daydreams (1987), which centers on a female detective investigating the murder of a call girl; Stone City (1990), a mystery set entirely in a maximum security prison, where an imprisoned professor is appointed by the inmates to solve a series of murders (remarkably similar to the HBO series Oz (1997) in its initial premise); Due North (1992), concerning a woman who returns to Seattle from the Alaskan wilderness to care for her dying mother; Karma (1994), a thriller featuring Hindu mobsters; Sacrifice (1997), a thriller in the vein of Floridian crime writers (Charles Willeford, John D. MacDonald and Carl Hiaasen); and Reprisal (1999), a tale of familial revenge and psychological horror. Smith switched to science fiction with his latest books which form The Snowfall Trilogy consisting of Snowfall, Kingdom River, and Moonrise. His best work is marked by a keen sense of psychological realism, powerful sensory descriptiveness, and moments of intense violence.