Quote:
Originally posted by Hawks Coach
Hawkk
I would buy that except I have heard that the reason for the rule had to do with baseline inbounds plays. In the case of a fan BB, it is easier to go over the top and get a pass to a player that on a rectangular BB would be hitting the back side of the BB. So something that would always result in a violation becomes legal with the fan BB.
Your explanation works for the front-to-back situation, but does not explain the back-to-front exception.
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Heck, I can't explain
everything!
Seriously, I can't think of a good reason for the back-to-front difference, other than that the difference was drawn because of the front to back. (In fact, if anything I would think the rule would go the other way in terms of back-to-front, as I thought the purpose of that rule was to prevent the OOB over the backboard pass for a dunk . . .) I'll stick with my guess that the rule evolved from the shot issue, and noone has bothered to think about whether the distinction really makes sense because of the decline in fan backboards.