carry/illegal dribble

[ChuckElias]

Originally posted by rainmaker
My understanding is that once the ball hits the body, it has to hit the floor again before the player "bats" it with his hand. So it's not illegal in itself, but also isn't meaningless. Maybe a better way to say it is that the hit by the body counts as a "bat", and there can only be one "bat" per floor-bounce. Am I incorrect about this?

Juulie, the rules are pretty clear on this. 9-5 says that "A player shall not dribble a second time after his/her first dribble has ended. . ." So the relevant issues are: 1) what's a dribble, and 2) when does it end?

4-15-1 tells us that "A dribble is ball movement caused by a player in control who bats (intentionally striks the ball with the hand(s)) or pushes the ball to the floor once or several times".

So bouncing the ball off of the body is not a bat, since a bat is with the hand(s). So bouncing off the body can't be a dribble.

As to (2) above, the dribble ends when the dribbler catches the ball, palms the ball, touches the ball with both hands simultaneously, or when an opponent bats the ball, or when the ball becomes dead. Since none of those things happens when the ball bounces off the dribbler's body, the dribble doesn't end, and s/he is free to continue dribbling.

In short, JR is r-r-r-r-r. . . JR is r-r-r-r-r. . . cough, cough. give me a second, I'll get it out. . . JR is r-right.