I must be getting senile but I cannot find a rule reference or casebook play for the following play.

Play: A1 is dribbling parallel to a boundary line. A1 pushes the ball down to the floor and while he/she is not touching the ball steps out-of-bounds and then establishes him/herself completely inbounds before touching the ball again.

I know that this is an out-of-bounds violation. But here comes the but: Does the out-of-bounds violation occur when A1 steps out-of-bounds or when he/she touches the ball again?

When A1 is dribbling a live ball he has player control status and the ball has the same court status as A1. The only time that A1 does not have player control status is during an interupted dribble.

This begs the question as to when the out-of-bounds violation occurs. It would seem logical to rule that the violation has occured when A1 touched out-of-bounds even though he was not touching the ball, but here comes the but again: If A1 steps out-of-bounds and then realizes that he does not want to continue his/her dribble and lets a team mate recover the ball.

One part of me wants to call the violation when A1 touches out-of-bounds and the other part of me wants to wait to see if A1 comes back inbounds and then touches the ball again. I seem to remember a casebook play that was identical to the one above but I cannot seem to find it.

NCAA, NFHS, and FIBA rules are all the same concerning player control and court status of the ball in control of a player but I cannot find the play described above.

I would appreciate any casebook play references from any and all sources. Thanks.

Just email me with them if you like.

Gut feeling is you would have to see touch the ball after having stepped out of bounds. Otherwise, you could have an interrupted dribble, a steal, another player on the team grab the ball, etc. Don't know that you can find a rule or case for it.

I'm sans-rules book at the moment, but the violation occurs when A1 touches OOB. Try 9-OOB (it's a note / comment) -- that either has this directly, or says that it doesn't apply during an interrupted dribble.

Violation when occurs
 

Assuming he/she maintains the dribble while on the sideline, rule 9-3 Note applies: "The dribbler has committed a violation if he/she steps on or outside a boundary, even though he/she is not touching the ball while out of bounds."

Thanks Mark. I don't know how I missed that Note.

The violation should occur where the player steps out, but if the player hasn't yet touched the ball since stepping out of bounds, how do you know you do not have an interrupted dribble? If they never touch it again, is it a violation? I always understood this provision to mean that if they stepped out then back in before touching the ball again, it was still a violation.

It is called judgement.
 

Anytime a player is actively dibbling they are in possession of the ball, touching the ball or not. So if a player is dribbling and they step out of bounds, they are out of bounds the second they touch the line. An interruped dribble or the determination of an interrupted dribble like other things are subject to judgement of the offical.

The interrupted dribble would have to occur before the player stepped on the line. Once the dribbler touches the line, the ball is dead, and whether the dribble becomes interupted or not is moot.

And just how would you determine that when the interrupted dribble occurred? When does an ID begin? When is the dribbler no longer dribbling?

Rut is correct. When an ID begins or when the dribble stops is a judgment issue. It isn't just black and white. There's some gray involved as well.

I was actually agreeing with Rut, I believe. Whether a dribble is interupted is in the judgement of the official (4-15-5 gives quite a bit of leeway), and then it is the judgement of the official as to which occured first - ID or OOB.