Fake To The Face ...
 

A1 receives a pass and is guarded closely by B1.

A1 fakes a pass into B1's face, with the ball stopping inches away from B1's nose.

B1 flinches and A1 drives by B1 for a layup.

No contact.

Anything?

One officiates for almost four decades, been to lots, and lots, of rodeos, been around the block many, many times, and thinks that one has seen everything, and then something like this happens.

You are going to get two answers: nothing and unsporting technical foul.
Use your experience and judgment to decide which is appropriate for your specific situation.

Going by the literal words that you used, this seems easy.

"A1 fakes a pass into B1's face" = unsporting. One could use the case play of a throw-in where inbounder does same to defender. Is it ever not unsporting to fake anything at someone's face?

Which case play is that? There is only holding/waving hands in front of someone's face and bouncing a ball off a defender's face that is mentioned in the case book.

Now if it's a dead ball period and someone does this, I could consider that as unsporting.

Buy Or Sell ...
 

Prophetic.

Got any stock market predictions?

For the record, next dead ball I told the player to "cut that out" (with apologies to Jack Benny), not knowing if I had any rule basis, I just bluffed my way through it. Speak with confidence and authority to a teenager and they'll believe you (some of the time, not all of the time).

Good luck with that question.

Good luck with that.

The market will go up or down.

In order to call this unsporting it would matter to me if this pass fake was done in a threatening manner or if it was a pass fake in the normal course of the game. Absent any contact, I have nothing.

As Clear As The Nose On His Face ...
 

The fake pass was aimed directly at B1's face, with the ball stopping only inches away from B1's nose. That's why B1 flinched. If I was B1, I also would have flinched.

Kobe Don't flinch...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUdLLdR8Pow

Another angle of this play showed that the ball was actually to the side of Kobe's face and not directed at his face.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

It Happened Again ...
 

This happened today:

A1 is handed the ball for a throwin.
B1 is guarding A1 and is right up to the boundary plane, not on it, not over it.
A1 fakes a pass into B1's face, with the ball stopping inches away from B1's nose.
B1 flinches and A1 makes as successful inbounds pass to A2.
No contact.

Anything?

During the next dead ball clock stopped situation I spoke the player telling her it was unsporting and not to do it again.

Is there rule backing for an unsporting technical foul, and if so, should we charge such?

Threatening harm to another player is certainly unsporting. Faking a ball to the face can certainly be interpreted as threatening harm. There is no other purpose for it.

Funny this thread is going on right now, because I had this variation last night in BV game:

A1 pressured in backcourt by B1.
A1, holding ball with both hands, takes it and bangs B1 on top of the head with it.

Trail official administering 10-second count -- and probably too on top of the action to have a great look -- gives a quizzical furrowed-brow expression like, "Did I really just see that?!"

I'm the C and come in with an unsporting T when I realize he isn't certain what occurred.

Everybody good with that? I am, but since this thread resurfaced today, might as well poll the peanut gallery.