Quote:
Originally posted by Mark Padgett
I still don't know why you reward a team with a taking a possession away from their opponents and giving it to them just because one of their players happens to be standing within six feet of the ball handler for five seconds.
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It's not to "reward the defense". It's to penalize the offense for not playing team basketball. The whole point of the rule is not to prevent delay. The point of the rule is to prevent one player from taking 30 seconds while he tries every move in his repetoire. It gets the rest of the team involved on offense. Otherwise, you get these ridiculous -- and boring! -- NBA-type possessions, where one guy just dribbles in backwards for 24 seconds, trying to find an opening. (Of course, you can't do that anymore, even in the NBA. Five second count with "back to the basket".)
Chuck