Is a slap on the hand always a foul ?

[gsilvest]

I was playing a pickup game last night with various experienced players. A situation arose where there was a dispute about whether an action was a foul or not.

To pose the question generically : is it always a foul when a player who has control of the ball and has both hands firmly on the ball gets slapped on the hand by an opposing player who is trying to 'strip' the player of the ball regardless of where spatially the pattacking player is holding the ball ?

The situation that this arose in was that an attacking player was on the way to the hoop as part of a layup and had the ball in both hands but extended away from his body. He passed a defending player who slapped down on the ball and in the process whacked the players hand before contacting the ball.

One side thought that this was an obvious foul because the attacking player had got slapped on the hand and was thus disadvantaged.

The other side thought that this was not a foul because the attacking player had extended the ball away from his body and thus it was fair game - the slap on the hand was all part of getting the extended ball away from the attacking player.

Of course the third side didn't really care and just wanted to carry on playing !

I thought that I would pose this question to the forum and get their verdict because I was surprised that the experienced players differed so widely in their view of whether the situation was a foul or not.