I had a traveling call last night. The travel happened on the left side of the free throw lane, about 3/4's way up from the end-line toward the free throw line. After I called traveling, there was a time out called. Before my partner reported the time out, he pointed to the end-line as the throw-in spot. After he reported it, I pointed to a place on the side-line where I would inbound it. He shook his head in agreement and we went on. (By the way, no coach ever asked where we were going to inbound the ball. Had they asked, I would have gone with his initial spot.) During our post game, he commented on my choice of inbound spots, saying he liked it. Since we were going from back court to front court, I saw no reason to go to the end-line to inbounds the ball. I have seen more experienced officials do the same thing I did. What do you say?

Without my books in front of me, I can't say for sure, but I believe that either the rule book or the case book or the officials manual contains a diagram showing the shading of the areas where you go to the endline.

What the diagram will show, if I remember correctly (!), is that you draw a diagonal line from each end of the free throw line to the corners (sideline/endline). All fouls/violations that take place in the lane, in the areas below the imaginary diagonal lines *and* in the semi-circle *above* the free throw line will result in an inbound on the endline.

I'm not sure if I explained that so that it is understandable, but I hope it helps!

The main reason to go to the end-line to inbounds the ball is that we're supposed to according to the rule. And really, why not?

The only time I ever purposefully deviate from the rule on this is when there are home-court issues (such as overhanging baskets or a bench that is too close to the court on one side) that put the inbounder at a disadvantage. This should have been an endline throwin, and the defensive team may have wanted to run a press.

Can we petition the Federation to simplify it: If it's inside the arc--> baseline. Outside the arc---> sideline. It wouldn't be a dramatic change, but it would be easier than visualizing diagonals from the end of the free throw line to the corner.

Thanks, I'll to the end-line from now on.