Quote:
Originally Posted by jeremy341a
H1 dives to the basket from the left wing. I am L opposite of where he drove from. H1 lays the ball in with minimal body contact that I ruled incidental. After the ball goes in H1's momentum carries him towards me. When he is about 5 or 6 feet from me he looks at me with an intense angry look and says "and 1" in a lounge intense tone. It wasn't quits a yell but louder than normal speech. Loud enough for that corner of the gym to hear. Is this a T in your game?
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Definitely a technical foul.
Now since you have a player who is clearly unhappy with the amount of contact which you are deeming incidental, you may wish to reconsider your thinking on that point.
When players are airborne, they are at risk of injury and cannot control their balance when contacted. Thus officials are instructed to "protect the shooter." Basically, what this means is that we have to diligently scrutinize any contact on an airborne player attempting to shoot, pass, or even rebound. The amount of contact may be far less than when players are in contact with the floor, but may have much more impact upon a player's body movement, ability to make the desired play, or under how great of a risk of injury it places the player. Such factors form the difference between marginal and illegal contact.
Key points to help us determine the legality of any such contact are the positioning of the players prior to becoming airborne, verticality, and who is the initiator.
So rather than simply discount the player's expression of displeasure as an example of poor sportsmanship which one should penalize and then move on from, I would advise considering it an opportunity to re-evaluate how much physical contact you are allowing on drives to the basket and subsequent airborne players. What kind of feedback are you getting from the players, coaches, and your partners? Is this the only incident of an unhappy participant which you've experienced or are you getting a few complaints a game?