Quote:
Originally Posted by Pantherdreams
I was using our language (pretty sure this equates to intentional in your rules) below is section I'm looking at. Keep in mind "contact" here is already meant to be understood as illegal contact. Note: I personally take exception to the way we are asked to interpret some of these rules but everyone's got a boss right.
36.1.3 To judge whether a foul is unsportsmanlike, the officials should apply the following principles:
• If a player is making no effort to play the ball and contact occurs, it is an unsportsmanlike foul.
• If a player, in an effort to play the ball, causes excessive contact (hard foul), it is an unsportsmanlike foul.
• If a defensive player causes contact with an opponent from behind or laterally in an attempt to stop a fast break and there is no opponent between the offensive player and the opponents’ basket, it is an unsportsmanlike foul.
• If a player commits a foul while making a legitimate effort to play the ball (normal play), it is not an unsportsmanlike foul.
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The second and third cases are out of the question, here. So we have to consider 1 and 4. What's "play the ball"? It's
not "going for the ball" which is even not considered good defense, in general; moreover, this interpretation would rule any off-ball foul as unsportsmanlike, for example.
"Playing the ball" is doing any defensive or offensive movement which is normal during a basketball game (it's the remark in the fourth case). "Playing the ball" may cause illegal contact, because of different players' skills, defensive or offensive errors and so on. Pushing a dribbler from behind is
not "playing the ball", nor it is tripping. Just some examples.
Is jumping in front of a shooter legitimate defense? I'd say yes. Is the contact excessive? I'd say no, in the original play (assuming contact took place). Therefore no U.
Ciao