Penalty Administration????

[so cal lurker]

I agree that past "in the order they occur" there is some ambiguity, but after reading I'm convinced that the ball is live after the shooting FTs. to the extent that we are concerned about whether, philisophically, part of the penalty was lost, only sort of. In essence the offense retained possession via the continuing motion rather than the ball being dead. But it's not entirely satisfying as the defense was better off having committed the foul than if the shot had gone in, as the offense would have had the 2 points, 2 FTs, and ball if the shot went in without the foul -- the foul gets the ball back for the defense (absent a missed FT and ORB). Interesting scenario.

[BigCat]

In my day job, when I have to interpret rules or statutes the rules require that I assume that the drafters said what they meant and meant want they said. Here, we all know that the usual penalty for a T is 2 shots and the ball at division line. The drafters of the rules know that too--they put it in the rule. Most of the time we only have one thing to penalize so the team gets the ball at the division line.

In the OP we had 2 fouls happening. The drafters of the rules addressed what to do in that situation---Penalize both fouls in the order they occurred. That is what they have said. If i'm interpreting this language i'm not allowed under statutory construction rules to say the drafters must have forgotten that a T also gives the ball out of bounds at the division line. i'm not allowed to change the wording "penalize in order of occurrence" because technicals are bad and a team should get the ball out of bounds at the division line even when the T happened first. Its a logical thought BUT the drafters said penalize in order of occurrence. That is what i have to do because they said it. The drafters know the normal T penalty. They could have easily said always penalize T last. They didn't.

The rules as they exist today REQUIRE us to shoot 2 for the T and then line everybody up for the other 2 shots and play from there. It would take a change in the rule or another case play to give the ball to the team at the division line. This is what I firmly believe. others will have to make their own decisions. the end...

[Adam]

Originally Posted by so cal lurker

I agree that past "in the order they occur" there is some ambiguity, but after reading I'm convinced that the ball is live after the shooting FTs. to the extent that we are concerned about whether, philisophically, part of the penalty was lost, only sort of. In essence the offense retained possession via the continuing motion rather than the ball being dead. But it's not entirely satisfying as the defense was better off having committed the foul than if the shot had gone in, as the offense would have had the 2 points, 2 FTs, and ball if the shot went in without the foul -- the foul gets the ball back for the defense (absent a missed FT and ORB). Interesting scenario.

Not true. Whether the shot goes in has no bearing on which order to administer the FTs.

[so cal lurker]

Originally Posted by Adam

Not true. Whether the shot goes in has no bearing on which order to administer the FTs.

Nor did I say there would be. You're misreading what I was saying. I was comparing the foul as oringinally posed with the shot going in *without* a foul.