Tonight I was in the stands watching a
VB game. I don't know about everybody else, but this is the only time that people ask my opinion. Kid started to take a shot from 15', defender came flying at him from in the paint jumped and got a hand on the ball and held it firmly. If both players had been simply standing flat footed, it certainly would have been a held ball. However, when the defender came down, he collided, torso to torso with the shooter, doing everything but knocking him to the floor. Official called a foul. I was sitting with the fans of the defensive team. A guy turned to me: "Jump ball! Wasn't that a jump ball?" I said no, that I agreed with the call, that when you jump up in the air and come down on top of somebody, it's pretty much gonna be a foul. He was satisfied, but I got to thinking, can a held ball be called while the defender is in midair, thus making this contact after the whistle irrelevant. The contact in this case was substantial, but certainly not intentional or flagrant. Is there a casebook play that deals specifically with this?