Unsporting Foul

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Da Official

JR I respect your input so let me further explain:

On a shot, If B2 extends his arm 45 degrees and puts his hand 1 inch away from A2's face, I believe the face guarding rule applies warranting the Unsporting Foul.

The most descriptive part of this post is the fact you stated the defender had their hand about an inch away from their face. The 45 degrees means nothing to me or has nothing to do with the rule. The rules says it is illegal to put their hands "near the eyes" of an opponent (10-3-7d Note).

And for the record the inch away from the eyes was not in your original description. And from a philosophy standpoint, I would have to see it before I made this call. I would not want to just call something just because it was close. I might even warn a player if I think that is what they were trying to do.

Originally Posted by Da Official

Also, what is "face guarding" other than attempting to obstruct the vision of the opponent? It is illegal in football, baseball, and basketball.

Also it is not appropriate to compare football and baseball to this discussion. First of all there is no rule for face guarding in baseball. The rule is obstruction or interference based on trying to prevent movement or making a play. Even in some cases preventing such action would be legal under the right circumstances. In Football face guarding is only illegal on forward passes and it is also illegal regardless of a specific distance. These examples have nothing to do with basketball and the rule basketball came up with. There are some things you can translate, this is not one of them.

Peace