Can someone explain to me how the defender - running at full speed - is able to stop at first contact with the screener who they never saw??? Yes contact on a screen can be severe and not be called, but I think Bart's point (sorry if I'm misreading Bart) is that in the play he is describing, there is no way the defender stopped after initial contact, and that's what causes the screener to get creamed...and I'm sorry, but sending a screener into the third row is not incidental contact...

It doesn't have to be an instantaneous stop, just that the defender must then try to stop and can not try to push through.

Perhaps I exaggerated a bit on the "third row" part. ;) If they hit them that hard, it's probably not a blind screen but more of a football play.

rocky
Even if the screener takes the brunt of it, the person initiating the contact will get some slowing down due st4rictly to making contact, assisting them in coming to a stop. The defender sends somebody into the third row, you may have a call. They go to the floor, I am not convinced. You have to see it to call it. But as I read the rule, if a player comes in at full speed, makes hard contact, then comes to a stop in response to the contact, then continues on, no foul. If they slow down due to the contact but keep right on going, you have to call a foul.

I know that some evaluators want contact that results in a crash called, but that is not consistent in my experience watching games. There are lots of no-call crashes. This is one that appears to be allowed for in the rules, more than some of the other crashes that I see passed on!

I would agree with all of this - just seemed like the thread was getting a little off-base and taking the tone of "the defender can kill the screener and it's incidental contact"...the screener does have the right to that spot on the floor, and sending them flying is probably not the best example of "coming to a stop"...