FIBA travelling-and an ejection story

[oc]

I was playing in a Rec ball tourney recently using FIBA rules. On quite a few occasions players would stand up while holding the ball and there was never a travel call. Similarly in the few games I reffed (in this league players have to ref some early round games) when I called a travel for this I took a lot of heat from a coach. In fact I had my first 2 technicals on a coach and ejection because he was so pissed I called these travels-and started pulling a Bobby Knight on the sideline.

Since I was the only one ever calling this a travel I wondered if FIBA was different and asked the "real" refs when they were reffing my team in the later rounds. They supposedly confirmed that it is not a travel in FIBA to stand up with the ball (without even dribbling). Then I did what I should have done in the first place and checked the FIBA rules from the 2000 rule book:

"It is legal when a player, whilst holding the ball, falls on the floor or, whilst lying or sitting on the floor, gains control of the ball.
It is a violation if the player then slides, rolls, or attempts to stand up, whilst holding the ball"

Which confirms that it is a travel to stand up but how could it NOT be a travel to fall down while holding the ball? OZ ref or any other FIBA experts out there know if this is still true? I could not find any rule changes since 2000 that discuss this. What kind of logic is FIBA using that falling down with the ball is not a travel?

Incidently when I kicked the coach out it got kind of comical. The first T was for swearing at me across the floor, second for kicking a chair 30 seconds later after we lined up for the free throws. Coach refused to leave so I calmly stood by the scorer and told him to start a stop watch and if he didn't start to leave in a minute the game was over. Coach started to leave but I think he realized he was making an A$$ out of himself so in what I guess was an attempt at humor tried to rush me and was easily held back by his players. Now I am 6' 8" 210 lbs. and the coach was a foot shorter, 50 lbs. lighter and 10+ years older than me. I was just standing there watching him try and come at me while the scorer, a good friend of mine, was laughing at the possible match up and said "go ahead". All in all it was a good training for me as I have never T'd a coach in a real MS/HS game yet and could use the experience of getting the job done while staying calm. And I probably could have avoided the situation by T'ing him up 30 minutes earlier when he deserved it but I just warned him.

[Edited by oc on Apr 1st, 2004 at 11:22 PM]