[Hawks Coach]

Mark - Where do you get this concept? The rule book differentiates between contact that is incidental and contact that is illegal. It even allows that incidental contact may be severe in nature. In other words, contact is accepted as part of the game - how can this game then be considered non contact??? If this was a non-contact sport, no contact (no matter how slight) would be incidental. If your pinky touches me, we have to stop play because that is contact.

However, in the interest of full disclosure, I must also say that I struggle with the blanket statement that the rule book provides guidelines. It does not - it gives rules. The problem with fouls is that the rules are not as clear as something like an OOB violation (i.e., you step on the line - you violated - pretty obvious). The incidental contact provisions allow (in fact require) referees to exercise judgement. Many (most?) other rules in the book are not like this at all.

Contact is expected on every possession of any good game, and occurs on every half-court possession of any good game. The ref must determine when that contact is such that it becomes a foul. That determination cannot be made from the rule book, because the dividing line is not clear by rule. It is determined by experience, by observing other refs call games, seeing what seems to make a game flow well, and learning from all of this what is incidental and what is a foul. And while no two refs may see it exactly alike, there is a range that refs should remain within. If you are way out there either way, not too many people are going to be happy with the games you call. And those games are liable to be uglier than the average game for that level of play.