[BillyMac]

Jump Balls: Microbursts Of Mayhem

The jump ball is archaic, as outdated as two-hand set shots, laced basketballs, peach baskets, and chicken wire cages around the perimeter of the court. For generations of players and fans, jump balls have been a forgettable, anachronistic formality. Coaches bemoan inconsistent tosses and unevenly governed movement rules, while some officials are weary of policing these microbursts of mayhem.

Why do we have a massive, complex rule set for a split second event that usually only happens once per game? At the start of the game, the tallest players on each team square off against each other. The referee tries to make a decent toss, and the umpire just hopes that nothing weird happens because many of us, including me, don't know the jump ball rules as well as we once did.

Now that we usually only have one jump ball per game, many officials, players, and coaches don't know the rules as well as we knew them back in ancient times. Back in ancient times, every official knew all the permutations of the jump ball rules, before the toss, after the toss, after the tap, jumpers, non-jumpers on the circle, non-jumpers off the circle, backward, forward, inside out, and upside down. Officials had to know these jump ball restrictions because in some games you could have dozens of jump balls, in three different jump ball circles, the jump ball to start the game, each period, overtime periods, and all situations where we now use the alternating possession arrow to adjudicate.

Back then, officials, players, and coaches all knew the jump ball rules. Some coaches even had different jump ball plays for each of the three jump ball circles depending on whether one expected to win or lose the jump ball.

Which brings us to the present problem: how well do otherwise very good officials know, understand, and adjudicate the jump ball rules today, when they are only memorizing and enforcing the most egregious violations e.g., ball touched on the way up, ball touched three times by jumper, ball caught by jumper, and ball hitting the floor without being touched by at least one of the jumpers?

In a two-person game, while one official is focused entirely on the tossing mechanics, and their own safety, it leaves only one official to accurately and realistically observe all eight non-jumpers and the two jumpers for violations, especially when jump ball rules are so complex, we only see a jump ball about once a game, and when jump ball violations happen in a split-second?

Can one recite all the jump ball rules without peeking at the rulebook? Based on original positions of players, jumpers, non-jumpers, on the circle, off the circle, who can move, limits of movement, crossing lines, including lines not even marked on the court, before the toss, during the toss, after the toss, after the tap. Add to that processing, interpreting, and enforcing all these rules within the fraction of a second that it takes for a jump ball. Be honest. If you can adjudicate it all perfectly from memory, you’re a better official than I am (with apologies to Rudyard Kipling’s “Gunga Din”).

To my point of otherwise extremely competent officials not fully understanding and memorizing all the many jump ball rules and restrictions, several times a year I hear otherwise extremely competent officials saying, pre-jump, “Hold your spots” to all eight non-jumpers, or, “You can't stand behind him”, to a player who is directly behind an opponent, both of whom are ten feet off the jump ball circle.

I know that I should know the jump ball rules better, but I figure why bother for a play that usually happens only once per game, lasts only a split second; with rules that basically might as well be in Ancient Greek to players, coaches, and fans; and that usually goes smoothly 95% of the time.

The jump ball is archaic, some jump ball rules are poorly understood and/or poorly enforced, and we should start games with some other method. It's the twenty-first century. We now have alternating possession arrows. The alternating possession arrow was created for a good reason, so let's get rid of all jump balls, give the ball to the visitors, or flip a coin, to start the game, and use the alternating possession arrow for the rest of the game, including overtimes, the most dangerous time for a jump ball mistake.

God created the alternating possession arrow for a reason, to smite all jump balls.