Quote:
Originally posted by splinter
Here you go:
Player A has the ball near the sidelines, either dribbling or holding it. Player B, on defense, gets a hand on the ball, forcing Player A to lose control and the ball goes out of bounds. Player A is the last to touch the ball.
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You are describing TWO different plays.
In one, a player dribbling the ball, defender somehow touches it, dribbler loses control, is last to touch it, ball goes out.
In the other, player is holding ball, defender slaps it, ball goes out of bounds.
In the first instance, yes it is simple, defense should get the ball, provided there is no foul. Trouble is, 99% of the time there is a foul. But since officials generally like to call as few fouls as possible, they'll sometimes award the ball back to the offense so as to not reward the defense for illegal contact.
In the second case, I ask this....whose contact with the ball caused the ball to go out of bounds?