Quote:
Originally Posted by Scratch85
As in the OP, if the two defenders chasing the shooter were bearing down with reckless abandon, causing the shooter to fear injury, I think any contact would likely be a foul.
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Be careful there -
A1 is driving to the basket on a breakaway with B1 chasing him as fast as his little legs can carry him and screaming like a crazed Banshee (no offense to the Banshee’s in the crowd
), as A1 goes up weakly (kind of stops and fades away) for the shot B1 goes up too with all the fervor and noise he can create, and they just graze uniforms or lightly brush bodies, are we going to call that foul because B1 defended the basket like a Tasmanian Devil?
NO - the shooter didn't go to the basket strong - the contact was minimal - and the defender's crazed antics had their desired effect. Little Johnny got scared and timidly went to the basket and missed the shot. (Let’s not bring up a possible delay of game T for having to clean the liquid off the floor)
Same scenario and Johnny goes to the basket strongly and the same contact is made by the Taz, one would be more inclined to make this call, but minimal contact could still be ruled as incidental.
Now if Johnny goes to the basket and gets wiped out by the Taz after the try, we have a foul - and depending on the severity we could have an intentional or flagrant - or worse if the ball is dead.
But Johnny still has to go to the basket strong and under control to get a call on the try, what happens afterward is what happens afterward and needs to be judged on that basis.
If A1 is shooting a fade away shot and gets hit, I believe that most officials are less likely to call the foul on minimal contact than they would be if A1 is going strong to the basket. As most officials are less likely to bail little Johnny out if he went to the basket out of control and throws up a prayer when he foresees the possibility of any contact coming and that contact turns out to minimal.
The point is you have to consider all of the play and as M&M and JR commented minimal contact that did not affect the try can be considered incidental and need not be called.