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It does refer to the position of a player on the floor. The ball just has to hit another player for it not to be a throw-in violation. It does not matter if the player the ball hits is standing inbounds or OOB. (Of course, the throw-in pass must break the boundary plane, before the ball is touched by a teammate or it is still a throw-in violation per 9-2-3.)
A good example is the play where one team tries to throw the long pass the length of the court. The pass is overthrown and bounces in front of the teammate for which it was intended. The ball bounced on the court in bounds, but its next bounce will certainly be OOB. However, even though the ball has broken the OOB plane on the far end of the court, it is not OOB until it hits something which is OOB. Therefore, if the teammate continues to chase the ball and even steps OOB at the far end of the floor but is able to touch the ball before it hits anything, the OOB violation will be on that player and not on the thrower. What this means is that the opponent will receive the ball for a throw-in at the spot where the ball was last touched, not all the way back down the floor from where the original throw-in was made. That is a big impact.
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