Quote:
Originally Posted by Nevadaref
And that is why the contact that the defender caused from behind and while sticking her arm into the mix warranted a whistle first. I’ve never been comfortable calling the second foul which is in response to contact I just allowed. It feels unjust.
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I see no illegal body contact by the defender, she stops on a dime just short of contact and doesn't move forward, all the incidental body contact is initiated by the pivoting (once she finally decides on a pivot foot) ball handler. But this is a subjective judgment call that Nevadaref has a right to question.
Nevadaref is correct in that the defender complicates things by adding her right arm into the mix, but I see no illegal arm contact. Again, this is a subjective judgment call that Nevadaref has a right to question.
Allowing incidental body contact, or allowing arm contact not putting the ball handler at a disadvantage, shouldn't subsequently be used as a rationale by an official to
automatically pass (as just) on a player who responds to one, or two, slight incidental contacts with a subsequent contact to the head (it wasn't a knockout punch, but it wasn't slight either).
Three contacts passed on don't necessarily make a right. Anytime a moving elbow, not just a touch, but an elbow moving fast enough that it can move, even slightly, a opponent's head, contacts a player in the head, a foul (not going down the "contact above the shoulders" Point of Emphasis rabbit hole, I believe that "only" a player control foul was appropriate here) should to be charged. Also another subjective judgment call that Nevadaref has a right to question.