Quote:
Originally Posted by BadNewsRef
That thought process is wrong.  He erroneously makes "up" an element of the rule. |
The rule says: "During a dribble the ball may be batted into the air provided it is permitted to strike the floor before the ball is touched again with the hand(s)."
Yes, I interpret "into the air" to mean 'up'. What do you think it means?
There's air all around the ball, so any batting of the ball sends it into air. If "into the air" doesn't mean 'up' or some specific direction, what does the phrase add to the rule? And if it adds nothing to the rule, then there's no reason for it to be there. That doesn't make sense of the rule, but just ignores part of it.