[JeffTheRef]

I had forgotten that coming to rest and lodging were defined as equivalent. If I had thought of it as 'lodging', I would have had less trouble with the law, if not its underpinnings.

I've never given it any thought, but now that I do, why should the shooter be exempted from the 'bad luck' of causing the ball to lodge, or come to rest up there, any more than from the bad luck of having the ball bounce off the rim and go out of bounds. Lighting is often uneven in gyms, balls are less than round, rims have different coefficients of friction (hehe, one of the reasons to get proper spin on a shot is to slow the ball down if it hits across the front of the rim). No one thinks there aren't going to be metal plates covering the holes for volleyball poles on some floors, and the occasional dribbler falls victim to that. The ball lodges, it rests up there, you caused it to become dead, Mr. or Mrs. Shooter. There's a whole lot of causation goin' on.

Of course, if you are dribbling and the valve in a ball let's go - I've never seen that - di you cause the ball to become (very) dead, or was it the first 23,546 bounces?

Fine. I give up. Possession arrow.