Blocking or Player control

[Dan_ref]

Originally posted by Schmidt MJ
Let me jump in here and say that I had this same situation happen to me last year. I called a double foul and here's my reasoning. A1 was dribbling near the midcourt line when B1 approached from the side and a little behind. At the rate B1 was closing in I was anticipating him to foul A1. Sure enough he pretty much ran flat into A1. But just as he made contact with A1 with his waist, A1 reached out with his forearm and pushed B1 in the chest. I was already blowing my whistle for the foul on B1 when I saw the push by A1. I had not pointed to either player yet so I was able to give the double foul signal.
Both coaches claimed I could not have both an offensive foul and a defensive foul at the same time, it should be one or the other. I told them that just as B ran into A, A pushed B. Since in my opinion, both players had committed illegal acts, I wasn't going to reward either player by calling the foul on his opponent. Both coaches grumbled a little but the game went on. I felt this was right since both acts happened simultaneously. If I'm wrong let me know the proper rationale.

Well, since you asked...

You're wrong on 2 counts. You done good by refereeing
the defense but you seem to have anticipated the foul
here and couldn't resist blowing as soon as you saw it.
You should have held the whistle & let the play develop,
clearly it wasn't over. Having blown the whistle for
the *block*, any subsequent contact should have been
ignored unless it was intentional or flagrant.
The push off sounds like it was neither so you should
have gone with the block.