[turnbucklejones]

Can a personal foul occur out of bounds? For example, as many of you probably witnessed, during the NBA playoffs the Spurs blatantly fouled Shaq over and over sending him to the line.

So hypothetically, what would happen if Shaq inbounded the ball and went up the court never stepping inbounds during the possession and the Spurs attempted to foul him. Is that a foul, even though he's not on the playing surface? Is the playing surface/court considered between the lines or the area surrounding the "court?" Is it an intentional foul because he's not on the playing surface? Or is it just a regular foul, assuming it isn't malicious, like we're used to seeing? Or something else?

Thanks for your help.