Quote:
Originally Posted by billyu2
The defender touching the ball doesn’t change the situation. The player maintained control of the ball and dropped it to the floor. The ruling says violation if the player touches it first. Interestingly, the ruling doesn’t suggest dropping the ball to the floor is illegal because at that point we really don’t know what it is. The ruling suggests it could be a “pass” or “try” in b, c and d and the ball remains live, meaning if the ball touches or is touched by any other player it simply becomes a legal pass. That is the interpretation I adhere to. Others may have different interpretations they go by.
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This is certainly a good point and I'm curious to see how others interpret it. Clearly it's hard to legislate intent, but when this occurs it's usually very evident it's not a pass attempt.
Rulebook defines a pass as: A pass is movement of the ball caused by a player who throws, bats or rolls the ball to another
player.
If a player jumps for a shot, second guesses it for whatever reason and drops the ball I don't see any way one could deem that a 'throw, bat or roll' to another player. Perhaps if it occurs with a teammate so near the shooter that he is able to immediately pick up the loose ball I'd consider not blowing it, but I've never seen that occur. Granted, I've only seen the drop ball scenario happen once in 7 years too.