While I am not a cop, my best buddy is and I have spent a lot of time (in the front seat) of his car. There are thousands of times when we see cars doing 4-5-6-even 8 or 9 miles per hour over the speed limit. Some get stopped, some he never flinches on, and some get tickets. I have even seen him let a guy that was too drunk to keep it between the curbs walk away. He did not know him and it was not 10 minutes before his shift was to end. I like to look at officiating with the same philosophy. Sometimes we see things that by the rule are illegal--some warrant a penalty, and some require a warning, and sometimes we just let things go. If I ever got a ticket for 1 mph over the limit--I would be guilty, but pissed--I would feel like I got picked on or treated unfairly. That is how coaches and players feel when there are minor things that happen and we call them. Most of the time when they bitch, they think that they got treated unfairly.
In this scenario, A1 is dribbling in his front court and B1 swipes at the ball and pushes it toward the floor. As it hits the floor, it simultaneously grazes A1's foot and goes into the backcourt where A1 is the first to touch the ball. By rule this is backcourt--but it is one that we can turn our head on. The same situation out of bounds, is a different deal--we can't continue to play ball if it has rolled over underneath the stands. But--if there was some minor contact on the swipe, and I passed on it--I might give the ball back to A if I feel I can get away with it. I'll trade a marginal OOB call for a marginal ticky tacker any day if I can. This has nothing to do with choosing which rules to enforce or not enforce--it is called advanced game management. I have been officiating for 8 years now and I'll be the first to admit that I would have called the back court up until a couple of years ago. When I quit being a walking rule book, I started getting more and bigger games. Maybe it's a coincidence--maybe not. It is great to know the rules--but the best officials are not always the ones with the best mechanics, etc. The officials who get the biggest games are the ones who can manage players, coaches, and themselves. By the way, I ran this scenario past 4 (Texas Division 1 officials who are doing regional tournaments) advanced guys and they all 4 said it was a no-call all the way. Does this make sense?
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