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It seems to me that the exception has largely swallowed the rule. IIRC, in the dark ages, you couldn't hang, period. So you chose whether or not to dunk knowing you couldn't hold the rim as you did it. It seems (and I could be wrong) that greater tolerance and the idea of protecting oneself came with the "snap back" rims designed to protect backboards. (As I recall, the first generation of safety rims just pulled away and had to be manually reset, and the next generation had the snap-back feature.) When the safety rule first came in, it seems to have been pretty limited in what was permitted, but over time more and more was permitted (less clear danger needed to justify and more gymnastics permitted as part of it). From a non-ref perspective, it seems to me the attitude began as "it better be obvious you're protecting yourself and needed to do what you did" or its a T, and has evolved into "hey, it's a safety rule, so unless I'm sure you're showboating or taunting, I'm not gonna question what you need to do to protect yourself if anyone's around."
But maybe that's just a misperception on my part -- I'd be curious what those who have been doing this for eons think.
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