Throw-in question

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by bucky

JRut (and others) - How would you respond to my case play? Thoughts?


"Team B scores a basket. During the subsequent throw-in, your 5-second count is at 4 and A1 and A2 are out of bounds behind the endline. Inbounder A1 throws a pass, which travels high and over the endline, and you stop your count. In a surprise move, A1, still out of bounds, steps back, and takes a running leap, jumps over the endline, catches the ball in the air, and throws it back to A2, who is still out of bounds. This stepping back, catching, and throwing back to A2 action, took more than 2 seconds.

When A1 caught his own pass, was that legal?
When the official stopped counting, is there recourse?
Can the official resume counting? If so when? Or is it simply a 5 second violation even though the count was stopped but you knew it took longer than 5 seconds?
What does "directly on the court" mean?

Officials stop counting on the release, not when the ball touches something. So in the OP, should not have the official stopped counting once the pass was released? (remember it was not a fumble/muff, but rather a pass)"

The bottom line is do you have a fumble or an actual pass? I do not think you should be such in a hurry to stop a count until you know they are actually passing the ball. So some of this is if there clearly is a pass, you will know. If there clearly is a fumble which is a temporary loss of the ball, you know the difference or should take enough time to know the difference.

I do not know if what you are asking is that deep. This is why you need to see plays. If you feel that the situation might be a fumble, then you know to not be so quick to stop a count. I am not blowing my whistle until I clearly have a violation for 5 seconds anyway. I guess we could do the mental gymnastics of what could happen to a situation that most of us have never seen (I do not think I have ever seen this play in life). But is that helping you with the normal stuff we do?

Peace