Personal Flagrant Mechanic

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by kbilla

Without having my book in front of me are you going to tell me that I cannot have an intentional foul that is flagrant? Or are you saying that what may have started as an intentional foul can BECOME flagrant and therefore is no longer intentional by definition? This is semantics to me....the penalty is exactly the same is it not?

Here you go:

Originally Posted by 4.19.3

An intentional foul is a personal or technical foul which neutralizes an opponent's obvious advantageous position. Contact away from the ball or when not making a legitimate attempt to play the ball or a player, specifically designed to stop or keep the clock from starting, shall be intentional. Intentional fouls may or may not be premeditated and are not based solely on the severity of the act. A foul also shall be ruled intentional if while playing the ball a player causes excessive contact with an opponent.

Originally Posted by 4.19.4

A flagrant foul may be a personal or technical foul of a violent or savage nature, or a technical noncontact foul which displays unacceptable conduct. It may or may not be intentional. If personal, it involves, but is not limited to violent contact such as: striking, kicking and kneeing. If technical, it involves dead-ball contact or noncontact at any time which is extreme or persistent, vulgar or abusive conduct. Fighting is a flagrant act.

Perhaps the bolded sentence in 4.19.4 is confusing: it cannot mean that a flagrant foul might or might not be an intentional foul. The definitions of the foul types are quite distinct, so it's not the case that one could be a subset of the other (the way that common fouls are a subset of personal fouls, for example).

You also cannot have an intentional foul become a flagrant foul, although you might have one followed immediately by the other.

So, JR is correct to say that no flagrant foul is an intentional foul. It might, of course, be intentionally flagrant, but that's neither here nor there. And semantics will be important as long as words have meanings.

Questions?