Quote:
Originally Posted by bearclause
Well - it occurs to me that if a team shoots the ball and misses it so badly that it wedges on the side of the rim, it might be considered an "infraction" with possession awarded to the defensive team. Would anyone really object if the rule were changed?
Specifically for free-throws - isn't an otherwise live ball that completely misses the rim/flange awarded to the defensive team?
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But it didn't completely miss. And it doesn't take a bad miss to get there. Some of those occurrences hit the iron in what look like normal shots....just like the one you described.
The point of it being a violation for completely missing is so that the shooter can't just throw the ball to his teammate and call it a miss.
The ball getting wedged is neither good nor bad. Neither team deserves the ball more than the other...hence, the AP makes sense.
Note that exactly the same ruling applies if this happens in the normal course of play....even on a shot that may or may not be tipped by the defense or even if it was not even a shot at all (a deflected pass, for example). To change the FT rule only just adds complexity.