[mlcowan]

First time poster... Interesting thread...

But, I don't see why this concept seems so strange to some? If you bounce the ball off the rim or backboard of you own basket, it's a shot. Doesn't matter what your intent was, whether it was an errant pass attmept to another player, a shot attempt, or intended as a self-pass, you can get it like a rebound (and dribble again)...

A player cannot take a shot at the opposing players basket... There was just a case of this the other night in the NBA where a player was going for a triple-double and needed one rebound. He took the ball in the backcourt and bounced it off the other teams rim, then got his tenth 'rebound'. The problem is that this was really a dribble, not a shot, so he didn't get credit for the rebound and didn't get his triple double. Actually, now I know he should have been called for a double-dribble :-), but the NBA refs didn't call it...

Another really interesting rule that gets into the interpretation of the act of shooting (I was investigating this rule and is how I ended up here) is the rule where a player can LEGALLY do a self-pass... If a player takes a legitimate shot at the basket (obvious room for interpretation here), then he can catch his own shot EVEN IF IT DOESN'T HIT THE RIM OR BACKBOARD!! This rule surprises me, and I would love to know how it is stated in the rule books... This rule seems way more outlandish then a player using the backboard for a self-pass...

- Matt Cowan