[Mark Padgett]

This is an “exercise” our local kids rec league gives to our first year refs (usually HS kids) just to see how well they can “get their heads around” a situation. See how many answers you can get.

NF rules. A1 passes the ball to A2 who is standing with both feet behind his team’s three point line. A2 catches the ball cleanly and, without moving his feet, almost immediately shoots the ball into the proper basket for a three point shot. However, the official properly waives the shot off. How many reasons can you think of as to why the official did this.

Here are some our guys have listed:
there was an inadvertent whistle
A2 commits a PC foul on the shot
prior to releasing the ball, someone on team A commits a foul
someone on team A requests a timeout prior to the shot
B2 fouls A2 before A2 started his shooting motion

My personal favorite is that one of our kids (a girl) said that before releasing the shot, A2 yelled a profanity at the official and a technical was called, plus (according to our league rules) A2 was ejected.

There have been more, but I didn’t want to spoil it for you. One none of them ever thought of is that when A2 received the original pass, he was standing in his team’s backcourt and the official called the violation. The problem just says he was behind his team’s three point line so he could be in the backcourt.

More?