Quote:
Originally Posted by Robert E. Harrison
When a player jumps upon another player on the floor. Do we call a foul or determine if he/she is going for the ball and consider it incidental contact? I know when two players have similar advantageous positions going for the ball the contact can be violent and not a foul.
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Robert, you are correct that if the players are in equally advantageous positions then contact while attempting to gain control of the ball is normally considered incidental. (Unless, obviously, one of them extends an arm or leg to push, hold, etc.)
But if one guy is jumping ON another player, you have to ask yourself whether they really did have equally advantageous positions. To jump onto another player, you'd have to start out behind that player, wouldn't you? You'd have to start farther away from the ball than the other player. That means that they are NOT in equally advantageous positions before the contact; and that means that the contact cannot be considered incidental.
And, as others have pointed out, there have been POEs and case plays to address this situation as well.