[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Ladies and Gentlemen: PLEASE!! READ THE RULES BOOK!!

I will only reference the NFHS rules, but the NCAA Men’s/Women’s and FIBA rules books agree.


R1-S2-A1: The playing court shall be marked with sidelines, end lines and other lines as shown on the appended court diagram.

R4-S41-A1: The thrower is that player who attempts to make a throw-in.

R4-S41-A2: A throw-in is a method of putting the ball in play from out of bounds.

R4-S41-A5: The throw-in ends when the passed ball touches, or is touched by, an inbounds player other that the thrower.

R7-S5-A7: After a goal or awarded goal as in R7-S4-A3, the team not credited with the score shall make the throw-in from the end of the court where the goal was made and from any point outside the end line. ….. Any player of the team may make a direct throw-in or he/she may pass the ball along the end line to a teammate(s) outside the boundary line.

R7-S6-A1: The throw-in starts when the ball is at the disposal of a player of the team entitled to the throw-in. The thrower shall release the ball on a pass directly into the court, except as in R7-S5-A7, within five seconds after the throw-in start. The throw-in pass shall touch another player (inbounds or out of bounds) on the court before going out of bounds untouched. The throw-in pass shall not touch a teammate while it is on the out-of-bounds side of the throw-in boundary plane.


As I stated in my first post in this thread. The end line ends where it intersects with the sideline and the sideline ends where it intersects with the end line.

Lets look at this play from a new perspective. Instead A1, instead of passing the ball to A2, who is also out-of-bounds behind the end line, A1 runs along the end line until he comes to the point where it intersects with the sideline. A1 then starts to run along the sideline toward his basket and then releases a pass to A3 who is standing inbounds. Has A1 committed a throw-in violation? Of course he has committed a throw-in violation. A1 did not make the throw-in from behind the end line.

Therefore, when A1 legally passed the ball to A2 (who is legally out of bounds), who missed the pass, the ball continued past the point where the end line and sideline intersect while still on the out of bound side of the boundary lines, A1 has committed a throw-in violation because A1’s throw-in pass did not touch another player (inbounds or out of bounds) on the court before going out of bounds untouched.