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Am slightly surprised that anyone would consider this an acceptable part of the game at any age.
By the way, I do appreciate further comments on this as this forum looks the most likely place on the net to get insight on this phenomenon which is prevalent certainly in the non professional game and there is clearly something to debate here.
To clarify my situation:
First, I am dealing with younger players who are not very good in the grand scheme of things.
“This move in basketball against a decent opponent seems like a great way to have the ball popped out of your hands.”
There is no way that my players on the receiving end of this threat would be good enough to steal the ball from the outreached hands as has been suggested might be possible in a higher level game. The offending player gets an instant advantage requiring no skill to get this advantage.
Second, and given the choice, I would much rather someone punched me in the face than threw a basketball in my face. The same goes with the threat of either action. A punch (by a 16 year old) might end up with a simple bloody nose, a b'ball popped in to the face would be a broken nose and therefore the threat is worse and certainly more cowardly.
As far as I'm concerned, basketball is a skill game and I don't get the skill in threatening to break someone's nose.
From MD Longhorn: "there are a lot of other places it would be good to avoid getting hit with the ball - and you don't see anyone T'ing up a guy for faking a pass in that direction, do you?"
I’ve never seen anyone try this so I can’t comment. It would be a threat (and an act of cowardice) with a similar level of consequences (the player on the receiving end would be put out of the game if it was followed through with). The threat should carry the same penalty as if the act was carried through with.
On the Bryant Barnes example, interesting that Barnes attempted to fake out Bryant from a dead ball situation (i.e. not in open play). Did he think he was more likely to get away with this while the ball was not in open play (before the whistle had gone) and hasn’t one of the refs got his hand on Barnes’ arm after the incident, presumably to warn him?
The Barnes example is the only one anyone has mentioned so far. Is this because this just doesn’t happen as much in pro ball? It certainly does at lower levels, doing nothing to protect truly skillful players. This being my aim.
And surely isn’t the reason we don’t see it too much in pro ball that pro players know it’s a cowardly thing to do and they would get called on it, not just by referees, but players, coaches and fans?
If this is true, shouldn’t we have the same standard when reffing and teaching young players how to play (and win) with skill?
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