Leaving the court w/o authorization

[M&M Guy]

I believe I read in one of those brochures that was handed out at our pre-season rules interp meeting that the intent of the rule was to make sure the game was being played within the confines of the playing court. "Unauthorized" leaving of the playing court wasn't meant to include a player falling out of bounds trying to, say, save a ball from going out-of-bounds. Rather they specifically mentioned players leaving the court to avoid screens. In the rules committes' mind, this was "expanding" the playing court, because they were now using out-of-bounds areas for normal play. This is a definite advantage over other players who were staying in-bounds, because they were using more floor space than the actual court.

This may be an extreme example, but I believe I saw a video of a play that helps clarify "unauthorized". Picture a gym with a wall behind one of the baskets. There are two doors along this wall, each around where the 3-point line intersects the baseline. The video shows a player, during a live ball, running full speed out one of the doors. Then, while the players are kind of standing around wondering what's happening, this player comes back in the other door, steps in-bounds, accepts the pass, and shoots the open shot. That's certainly unauthorized, but wasn't specifically covered by the rules.