I had something crazy happen last night in a rec ball game. As I was coming into the front court becoming the new lead, I stopped short of the inline. The offensive player ran into me and fell down as he was being passed the ball which caused it to go out of bounds. I gave the ball back to the offense since I cause the him the fall. I was out of position and my partner went with the call, but told me at halftime I shouldnt have done it. The game was neck and neck and my doing that made no difference in the outcome of the game. Comments???

1. What's an "inline"? :)
2. I would have handled it by the book. The official is considered part of the court. Throw-in to the opponents.
JMO.

In-line/Baseline

I know that I kicked that call.

Follow the rules.
 

I agree with Nevada.
Giving the ball to the wrong team penalizes the wrong team.

Live and learn as my grandma always said! Thanks for your replies.

The correct term is END line. Perhaps you've never been told that as the two do sound alike. :)

As for the call itself, I'm not being hard on you. In rec ball and/or with little kids they way you handled it may have been ok for you in that particular game. I'm just saying that, personally, I would not have done it that way.

I had something similar in Men's league.

I had tripped on a freshly waxed floor. I went down, and got in the way of a pass receiver. Ball goes OB. No defender was around the receiver.

Ball back to offense.

Defense questions me, and they agreed with me that none of their players were around. They also agreed that in all liklihood, he would have caught the pass. They also agreed that this is extenuating circumstances and that I'd do the same for them.

They agreed with me 100%.

NOW... I would only do that for a men's rec league, where all they really wanna do is run off some stream from the stresses of work, etc.... in HS I would GBTB.

Doing this men's rec league for 5 years, they know me and they know I'm fair.

Yes let me clarify that too, I would only do that in rec ball, not in a HS or College game. I figured it was permisable due the the fact that I caused him to fall and he was open and not being guarded.

When you say that you would only do this for a men's league do you mean the fall part or the give the ball back to the O part?

I thought when they wax the floor it's supposed to give better traction????? Or was it toooo much traction? ;)

Ah... the age old debate.. justice vs. Mercy
 

Sometimes you can't service both Justice AND mercy.

JUSTICE says GBTB... ball to Defense since offense touched it last, and it went out of bound.

MERCY says that clearly it is more fair to give ball back to offense, since they should not be penalized for Referee mistake.

So here is how one should handle that situation, satisfying both Justice & Mercy. (Tongue-in-cheek) follows:
1) Offensive (blue team)player trips over referee.. misses pass he would have otherwise caught.
2) Ball goes out of bounds.
3) Award ball to Defense (red team) as blue team was last to touch before it went OOB.
4) On red team throw-in, at last minute jump in front of player doing throw-in, causing ball to bounce off your chest and into blue team's hands.

--If I recall correctly that play was outlined in the casebook one year.. I think it was back in '98.. I would have to check to be sure.--

You could always have an "inadvertant whistle" and just give it back to the team.

Re: Ah... the age old debate.. justice vs. Mercy
 

Justice would be that the ball would hit the ref in the nose, and it would then bounce back to the player who would catch it and shoot an easy lay-up!!