Ball Hits Fan's Shoe on Court

[Hawks Coach]

Technically - wrong as described above. Unless the fan is complaetely on the court, they had OOB position so the ball was OOB when it struck the fan.

From a game managment perspective, given the tight quarters especially, to keep playing since it didn't impact the play seems to be a good call. Players should be able to reasonably play the game as it was meant to be played, and hitting a fan's shoe is not something they consciously trying to avoid (unlike the boundary itself or the ref, who is a constant and expected presence). And keeping it going if it was the visiting team and a home fan, or vice versa, really helps avoid a potentially troublesome situation.

By the way, did anybody from either team argue about the non-call? did anybody even notice?