Quote:
Originally Posted by sseltser
I think that this whole "playing the ball" thing is being taken to literally. It is a good gauge when a team is stopping the clock in the last minute or when a guy rakes a breakaway layup shooter's arms, but "playing the ball" is irrelevant when guarding a player without the ball. Based on this logic, displacing a post player should be unsportsmanlike (or intentional for the American game) because the defender isn't "making any effort to play the ball." Continuing on: every illegal screen isn't an effort to play the ball. This is one of the times where I'm glad I don't work FIBA.
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I prefer to consider the meaning of "play the ball" as "play basketball": a screen is "playing basketball", but it may be illegal, so usually a common foul.
And this is the normal interpretation of the phrase, except for that stupid rule about fouls by the defensive players during a throw-in.
Ciao