Shoulder Push

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by Nate1224hoops
Severity to me determines everything. IMO, in any brush or bump someone gains an advantage. That's the idea of the game. A post player wants to maintain contact with a defender in order to "feel him," to determine where he is going. This contact results in the offensive player gaining an advantage..yet he hasnt used his hand to hold. But he did use contact or bumping to gain that position. Is this a foul? By the book...yes. Called in most games. No.

I'm not so sure that it's right/wrong -- but as an official, you do need to keep changing and improving. And this may be something that you'll need to work on this season. The danger isn't calling too much , it's calling too little. When you say that every bump and brush gives an advantage, I think you're using the words in ways that don't give us the same picture you're trying to portray. The contact, and the severity of the contact, aren't the point. The question is, was the advantage gained by illegal means? Was the disadvantage that the player gave to the opponent given illegally?

Suppose a dribbler is moving up the floor, and a defender sidles up along side and achieves and then maintains LGP. Now the dribbler may continue in her path, even if that means that she and the defender are actually touching, and the defender can continue in HER path even with slight contact. But, if the dribbler wants to turn, and can't because the defender is in the way, even slightly more contact by the dribbler in turning will be illegal, and thus a foul, if it moves the defender even one inch out of the path of keeping the dribbler from turning.

It won't always get called, because most refs will wait another breath or two to see if the dribbler keeps turning, or backs off. But if there's any displacement of the defender, there's a foul, and it should be called. It may not be severe at all, but if it gives an illegal advantage, then whistle it.