[jbduke]

Originally posted by BktBallRef

Take it as patronizing if you like, that wasn't the intent. The intent was simply to point out that there's no advantage/disadvantage in the play where the bigger player is involved in a collision. It has nothing to do with penalizing a player because he/she is bigger/smaller. That's the point.

Tony,

I think we're in violent agreement here. I posted my scenarios in response to the questions both expressed and implied of, "Aren't we penalizing someone for being stronger/bigger?" I hoped my example would illustrate that this is the wrong question, and that the question(s) should be more along the lines of advantage/disadvantage.

Again for the sake of argument, if the whistle blows for a held ball, then, after a reasonable amount of time has passed, one player, in trying to gain sole possession of the basketball, throws another to the ground, then at the middle school level, I'm with JR. And one of the reasons I am goes to the heart of the scenario I gave earlier; i.e. if you're talking about a small/weak girl, she's not going to be capable of generating the kind of force necessary to throw someone else to the ground, whereas a bigger/stronger girl will.

FWIW, my intent is not to debate whether the original poster's play included a 'reasonable amount of time,' or what exactly constitutes said amount.