Bulls-Pistons

[BoomerSooner]

I didn't see a thread on this already, so here goes...

I think it was early 3rd maybe late 2nd (watching the replay on ESPN at work, so I don't know exactly when this happened), Heinrich of the Bulls went airborn to catch a pass and contact the official who was out of bounds with his knee will catching the ball. Now I'm not calling the official out or anything because replays show him rubbing his head, looking like he is just trying to figure out where he was, but should this have been an OOB call and Pistons ball?

Don't have my FED with me, but I think its the same as NCAA which I pulled up online and 7.1 and 7.2 suggest OOB, as does NBA 8.1 and 8.2. I think where I'm doubting my interpretation is the wording is that a player is OOB when he is touching "the floor or any object other than a player on or outside the boundary line". Does "object" include the official. I know some officials might object to being called an object but we certainly aren't players. 7.2 or 8.2 certainly allows us to call it OOB if the ball touches us, but what about the player in control of the ball.

Or to be really silly if we aren't considering people to be objects, could a player have some of the offensive linemen from the football team lay down OOB and he walk across them to a spot OOB where the defender can't reach them and use this as a delay tactic. I know this is completely radical and there are rules to handle this, but based on the way 7.1 is written wouldn't it be legal excluding other objections that I'm sure will be mentioned. This very radical thought process led me to believe that contacting and official OOB while possessing the ball should be OOB.

I didn't check the FED case book, but the NCAA approved rulings don't cover the situation and the NBA casebook online isn't very organized in terms of finding specific rulings so if I'm way off base please point me in the right direction.