[WayneG]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents worth. IMO I would consider this an attempted pass by the player to himself, which would be a violation. He obviously tapped the ball to himself in an attempt to get the ball behind the defender to get an easy bucket. One thing that no one has really discussed was the actual amount of steps he actually took. If for instance he did take four or five steps to retrieve the tap, then I would think that he did indeed violate at least the rule about only passing to a teammate. But if he only took 2 steps and then jumped off his second step, then no violation has occured because a player is allowed to take two legal steps when the dribble has finished. When the player made an upward motion to tap the ball (he must have to for it tp go over the defenders head), I think this legally ended his dribble. Then he would be allowed to take his two legal steps, jump, catch and shoot without violation. Once he takes that third step, it would become a violation.