Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
The operative word is "or" which means the first part of that sentence applies one thing and the other is simply not giving the officials the ball.
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Agree.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
It did not say "and." It said, "or."
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Agree.
However, not necessarily in this case (common basketball sense applies here, how can a team gain an advantage by doing this), but in similar sentence (maybe not specifically related to basketball), that may not be so easily understood using common sense. I'm sure that speaking in a particular manner (with pregnant pauses), can make it seem that the introductory statement "attempting to gain an advantage by interfering with the ball after a goal or by failing to immediately pass the ball to the nearest official after a whistle is blown.", can make it appear that the introductory statement "attempting to gain an advantage" applies to
both clauses; "interfering with the ball after a goal" as well as "failing to immediately pass the ball to the nearest official".
Quote:
Originally Posted by chapmaja
In my opinion the spirit of the rule and intent is to prevent the game from being delayed (thus the DOG warning issued first). You can't tell me the game was delayed because of Clark's actions that got her the T.
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My high school English teacher, Mr. Baumgartner, would be very disappointed that I can't explain this better. Maybe something to do with compound sentences and independent (or dependent) clauses?
This rule could somehow be written better (maybe added punctuation, possibly a semicolon between "goal" and "or") so that we are 100% sure that the introductory statement "attempting to gain an advantage" absolutely does
not apply to "failing to immediately pass the ball to the nearest official". I think that chapmaja and Mr. Baumgartner might agree with me.
However, to basketball officials, how it's currently written is probably just fine.
I (a high school official) believe that I know the purpose and intent of the rule and what the rule means, just not sure that it would hold up in a court of law with non-basketball-official attorneys, judges, and jurors parsing words in this somewhat complex compound sentence.
Here's another complex compound sentence high school rule that can leave some officials confused by independent clauses with the word "or":
https://forum.officiating.com/basket...ml#post1049088