Debate: Yeah – Nay: Legal Entitlement to Spot on Floor

[Jim Dixon]

Something new for the Holidays, and the New Year! Officiating.com will periodically present issues on which you can go to our Discussion Board -- The Official Forum -- and express your views. It begins this week, and the first topic involves legal entitlement to a spot on the floor – when a player is lying on the floor.

Potential points of view may include points on legal guarding position, entitlement to a spot on the floor when a player is lying on the floor, verticality when NOT on one's feet, initiation of a foul, block, and perhaps others.

The ball gets loose in front court near the division line, and bodies are scrambling to gain control.

A1, while on her feet, finally gains possession of the ball in her back court and starts to dribble toward her front court.

B1, however, is still lying on the floor after her failed attempt to get to the ball, and is in the way of A1 who is trying to get to her front court.

Yea or Nay?

Is B1 entitled to her spot on the floor, and must A1 go around her?

Or, instead, should A1 be entitled to receive protection from any unintentional or non-flagrant contact that occurs whether A1 initiates it or not? (An example might be A1 attempting to hop/jump over the legs of B1 but fails to do so and goes to the floor.) If B1 does not move to initiate contact, but A1 trips over B1, is B1 or A1 at fault, and should a foul be called?

Please use proper definitions and cited rules to back up your position.

Submit other debate issues you would like to have addressed to the Basketball Editor at [email protected]. That will ensure that they get special attention on our ‘front page.Â’

[Edited by Jim Dixon on Dec 27th, 2001 at 11:27 AM]