: Last night, I had one of those weird happenings that seem to be following me lately. Here's what happened.
: A1 to inbound to start 3rd quarter. Inbound pass goes OOB untouched. I go to scorer to explain that, by rule, if the inbounding team violates on an AP throw-in, they lose the ball and the arrow - team B now gets arrow. Coaches both listen, no problems.
: A few minutes later, there is a tie-up. B1 to inbound due to AP arrow. Yep, you guessed it. After the ball was handed to B1, but prior to him releasing the ball, B2 pushes off A2 right in front of my partner. Partner correctly calls a personal foul on B2 (since the ball became live when at disposal of B1, contact need not be flagrant or intentional to be called - in case you were thinking that). We were not in the bonus, so throw-in for team A due to the foul.
: I bet you can guess what's coming. Now I go over to the scorer and explain that because the inbound was not completed, team A gets the ball for the throw-in due to the foul, but team B gets to keep the arrow.
: Coach A virtually explodes. "How can that be?", he bellows like a stuck pig. "You can't have it both ways!", he rants. I calmly explain that the standard situation when the inbound is not completed on an AP throw-in is for the inbounding team to keep the arrow, but there is an exception for when the team violates. The exception does not apply when they foul.
: Again he yells, "How can that be?" He starts to sound like a broken record (for those of you who were born after 1980, we used to have these things called "records" - they were - oh, never mind).
: "Coach", I tell him, "I'm just the messenger. And before you ask - YES, I AM SURE!!!"
: "But that's not fair", he wails.
: "Coach", I reply, "this is basketball. You want justice, call Judge Judy."
: BTW - his team lost by two.
: I love this game.
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