can you have a held ball when the defence has only one hand on ball on a non shot situation?

If control cannot be obtained by one of the players involved without undue roughness, then the answer would be Yes. I have called a held ball in situations where one of the players only had one hand on the ball.

Jump shot and Mr. Big Paw prevents the release of the ball by placing one Hand on it. Jump ball, go with the arrow.

[Edited by RecRef on Mar 30th, 2004 at 01:17 PM]

the reason i asked, if you look at the rule 4-25 art.1, it has the definition of hand in the plural form. ive had another official tell me that you must have two hands on the ball in a non try situation, but ive called held ball with just one hand on the ball. if you read the rule to the letter it sounds like you need two hands on the ball, i just want to get it right . thanks

It reads in part: "A held ball occurs when: Opponents have their hands..."

The rules assume that if you have Opponents (plural), you will also have hands (plural). This is a correct assumption usually. However, what if the ball is on the ground and a player falls on it and traps it under his body while another is trying to wrest it free. This would be another example of a held ball even though only one opponent has hands on the ball.

Remember, the book can't cover every conceivable type of play nor do we want it to.

I've made held ball calls where only one player had his hands on the ball. A1 lying on top of the ball, B1 with hands under him on the ball. A1 had no intention of getting up and had the ball pretty much lodged between the excessive amounts of "body tissue" in his abdomenal region.