alley oop foul
 

On an alley-oop pass to a potential dunker, at what point does the shooting motion begin to warrant a shooting foul?

I was surprised to see one called last night when the foul occurred long before the ball reached the potential dunker--indeed, he never touched the ball at all. (I'm not sure if he had begun his jump yet or not.)

Rules don't say much about that type of play. For me begins once the player touches the ball. However if he's jumping and gets fouled and still touches the ball and/or grabs it and attempts a dunk, I'm considering that in the shooting motion. It's more a feel thing for me.

A player needs to have the ball or have released the ball and be in the air in order to be in the act of shooting.

To simply tap the ball (which starts a try by rule), you must have touched the ball.

Peace

The rules are very clear about this.

Rule 4-41 says:

Peace

Thanks. I thought it quite odd, but was wondering if I was missing something.

(I couldn't get perturbed about fairness on the call, though--in the particular case, with a 7 foot leaper covered only by a 6'2" guy, the dunk was inevitable without the foul. I thought it was a smart foul to not let him shoot.)