Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam
Isn't it legal either way?
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Only if the part of the hand he hit was on the ball.
I believe that the purpose of the rule you're alluding to is to prevent a player with the ball from blocking access to the ball with their hands and to allow the defender to play the ball without worrying about where the hands might be located ON the ball, not to make hands fair game just because some other part of the hand is in contact with the ball. If the hand were moved out of the way, would the defender have hit the ball instead of the hand?