Free Throw Violation

[M&M Guy]

Originally posted by DownTownTonyBrown
So a player that leaves his feet in the proper lane space and falls into the key (push up) has not left his lane space and this should NOT be a violation?

JR, Nevada, I'd like to sell tickets to that one! I can't imagine a single person in the gym that would say "Yep, the referee is correct. That is okay/legal."

Tickets are sold to many games where not a single person in the gym has said, "Yep, the referee is correct. That is okay/legal."

Anyway, I feel exactly the way you do - I will also call this a violation. But, I do understand Nevada's position - as the rule is written, it would not be a violation. There is nothing in the rules on FT's that would make this a violation. I'm pretty sure the intent of the rule is to allow the leaning, so we don't have to watch for whether a player's hand, or face, or lock of hair has broken the plane of the lane space. We just need to watch the feet. But the unintended consequence is there is no language in place about touching the lane directly, or being "in the lane" during a FT. Your comparison to being OOB doesn't work, because there is specific language in place - rule 7-1. This is just Nevada's "warped, legalistic opinion" on a possible loophole. I feel better that I haven't been calling this wrong all these years (well, at least this specific item), and discussions like this do force me to read the rules much more carefully, rather than skim over things that I think are "obvious".