Weird situation.

Situation brought up in our association meeting last night. I just thought I'd get some of your thoughts on it.

A1 has ball in frontcourt, in the lane. A1 has picked up their dribble and is looking for someone to pass to. Nobody is open and apparently can't get a clean shot toward the basket off, but does have an angle to bounce the ball of off the backboard go retrieve it after it hits the backboard and lay it in.

What do you have if anything? A reference would be nice if you have one.

[Lotto]

If you view the bounce off the backboard as a try for goal, legal play.

If you do not view the bounce of the backboard as a try, then this is an illegal dribble.

Sorry---don't have rulebook references, but I'm sure someone will provide them soon!

[jdw3018]

Originally Posted by Jerry Blum

Situation brought up in our association meeting last night. I just thought I'd get some of your thoughts on it.

A1 has ball in frontcourt, in the lane. A1 has picked up their dribble and is looking for someone to pass to. Nobody is open and apparently can't get a clean shot toward the basket off, but does have an angle to bounce the ball of off the backboard go retrieve it after it hits the backboard and lay it in.

What do you have if anything? A reference would be nice if you have one.

If you judge he intentionally bounced the ball off the board and it wasn't a try, then it was an illegal dribble. Don't have my books right now, so sorry for no citation.

If it were me, I'd want to be awful sure he was really trying to "pass it to himself" off the board and not actually making a try at the hoop...

[Scrapper1]

Originally Posted by Lotto

If you do not view the bounce of the backboard as a try, then this is an illegal dribble.

Originally Posted by jdw3018

If you judge he intentionally bounced the ball off the board and it wasn't a try, then it was an illegal dribble.

Only problem is that the rules explicitly state that bouncing the ball off your own backboard is treated the same as bouncing it off the floor, except that it is not considered to be a dribble. So how can it be an illegal dribble?

[SamIAm]

Originally Posted by Jerry Blum

Situation brought up in our association meeting last night. I just thought I'd get some of your thoughts on it.

A1 has ball in frontcourt, in the lane. A1 has picked up their dribble and is looking for someone to pass to. Nobody is open and apparently can't get a clean shot toward the basket off, but does have an angle to bounce the ball of off the backboard go retrieve it after it hits the backboard and lay it in.

What do you have if anything? A reference would be nice if you have one.

Jerry, did A1 actually do it or merely have an angle to do it?

First off - You can never know what A1's intention was. Even if A1 told you after the fact, A1 could then be lying.

As for the rules, I am pretty sure a case play says this is legal as you should presume it is a shot attempt. Someone will either educate me or confirm via a case play reference.

They did actually do this and the officials no called it. Mainly because they weren't sure whether it was a violation or not. It was in an almost 40 pt game so it didn't matter one way or the other.

Plus I happened to find a Case situation: 4.15.4 Situation C. Difference in the situation is that in ruling C they say A1 throws the ball against his/her own backboard in an attempt to score (try), catches the rebound and dribbles again. Ruling: Legal. Once ball release on try there is no player or team control.

This makes it seem that we should consider every time the ball is bounced off the players own backboard as a try. Interesting.

[Mark Padgett]

Really, any ball thrown off the backboard for any reason has a chance to go in, no matter how miniscule that chance is. If you rule it wasn't a shot attempt, rotsa ruck.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by jdw3018

If you judge he intentionally bounced the ball off the board and it wasn't a try, then it was an illegal dribble. Don't have my books right now, so sorry for no citation.

If it were me, I'd want to be awful sure he was really trying to "pass it to himself" off the board and not actually making a try at the hoop...

Intent doesn't matter. If the ball hits the backboard, the player is free to catch it or even dribble again.

[MadCityRef]

4.12; 4.15; 4.44 Case Book plays support A1's ability to throw the ball against his backboard and dribble again.