is this considered a Kick in basketball

[Smitty]

Originally Posted by Eastshire

I'm willing to be the contrarian here.



If the defender closed his legs and then the ball handler throw the ball against his legs, there is no kicking violation.

Further, I think it's a stretch to convert closing legs to intentionally striking the ball. So, without the defender moving his legs towards the ball, I don't see how you could describe that as striking the ball as opposed to the ball striking the player, which is not a kicking violation.

So, as described in the OP (legs closed then pass) you cannot possibly have a kicking violation. If, as is more likely, the order was actually the reverse of that, you probably didn't have a violation as the ball likely struck the leg rather than the leg striking the ball.

In the same situation, if the defender jumped with their legs spread and the pass hit the front of the thigh of the defender, would you also have no violation?