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I appreciate the responses, even the Duke banter (yes, I'm a fan, by longtime residence after an Indiana upbringing, especially of the W team).
I don't have access to the casebook of course. But looked at the 2004 rulebook online (thanks for the tip, Lotto).
I sense that things aren't fully settled in the world of the fastbreak outlet pass.
Rule 4, Sec. 33, Art. 7 on page BR-73, specifically the example labelled A.R. 25, talks about the fastbreak outlet pass and how it'd be a foul on A1 if B1 were planted 10 feet ahead before A1 received the pass.
Ok, that's plenty fair enough. But reading that from A1's perspective, A.R. 25 says to me that I have to be given some reasonable time and distance to perceive that B1 is planted in my path. In trying to picture the real situation, A.R. 25 seems to be saying that B1 would have to be planted before I turn back to receive the pass. As A1, I'd then have the responsibility to glance upcourt and assess my planned path before I turned back to look for the outlet pass. I couldn't just run hellbent upcourt looking exclusively back.
That's what it suggests to me, but as a practical matter I don't know how an official is supposed to take all that in.
This business about A1 and B1 being 10 feet apart at some point, with B1 already planted no less, seems unworkable.
Trying to put myself in an official's place, it'd seem easier to call if the interpretation were focussed on whether A1 has a reasonable chance to avoid contact after catching the pass--such as, say, the stride and a half it takes to get the ball down for a dribble or to make a pass. Then it wouldn't matter whether I looked 10 feet upcourt before turning back to receive the pass and whether B1 was already there when I looked, which is what A.R. 25 seeming to be requiring both A1 and the official to assess.
However the letter of the law can be read, I'd offer two considerations that I think should underlie and inform interpretation:
1. Safety. Discouraging high-speed crashes, of course, but, even more, not requiring A1 to make a potential knee- blowout kind of move to avoid contact, and
2. Enhancing the game. Fastbreak passing takes practiced teamwork. It's the only way for a team without a speedy dribbler--a Raymond Felton, John Lucas III, Ivory Latta, Marion Jones etc.--to run the break effectively. For the good of the game, maybe that ought to be given some reasonable allowance so that midcourt passing plays are encouraged, not so readily penalized by a travelling or charge call. Just a fan's wish.
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