Legal inbounds play?
 

In a BV game a couple of nights ago I saw something new (to me). Coming out of a timeout late in the game, home team has the ball for a baseline throw in after a made basket. Visiting team has been full court pressing for the past few minutes. H team comes out of timeout and lines up standing out of bounds on the endline like they are getting ready to take off in a race in the opposite direction. I'm at C and my partner who is the new trail getting ready to administer the throw in and I just kind of look at each other with blank expresions and then play on.

As ball is handed in to player for throw in the other four players take off in a dead sprint for the other end of the court and at about the free throw line in the back court one kid peels back and accepts the inbounds. Obviously the defense had all been duped by the initial sprint for the other end of the court and the kid who peeled back was wide open. They ran it sucessfully two more times.

So my question is, legal or not?

After calling a time out after having already inbounded the ball one time, they tried to run the same play for a spot throw in. We made the four not inbounding the ball stand in bounds for that one. Were we correct there or could they have started OB for a spot throw in? They still ran the play sucessfully, they just started on the other side of the endline.

Without my books with me, I believe that this is illegal. Basketball was meant to be played inbounds, with exceptions such as the thrower-in being legally out-of-bounds. There is a restriction for leaving the playing court for an unauthorized reason, and I do believe that starting out of bounds is not an authorizes reason to be OOB.

I would agree, except, on an endline throwin after a made basket a player can step OB and legally receive the ball OOB and then throw in to another player in bounds, right? I just thought they were going to pass it back and forth between all five of them initially when they lined up like that.

You're right... you did say after a made basket.

If a player is OOB to receive this pass, the ball holder still has to decide if it's advantageous to attempt the pass. There's no obligation to actually pass the ball to said teammate. Team A could position players on either side of the original thrower-in for OOB pass options. I suppose the argument can be made that the 4 players without the ball decided that based on the defensive alignment, they no longer wished to attempt the OOB-pass. In that case, they properly came back inbounds.

When I was younger, colleagues and I did the typical "make up odd scenarios" to test our knowledge. I never thought of this one. From a strategical point of view, I think it's legal, but only after a madeor awarded basket.

Legal only after a score or awarded score.

And an immediate violation if more than 1 player oob on spot throw-in...

Legal in the first instance(s); not legal in the second. You got it right.

I believe the refs were correct in both instances.

The team I help coach is entering the playoff rounds......I may put this play in! :D Ooh, I can just here the refs and other coach now....., could make for an interesting discussion, especially since I carry all the books with me......

Actually, I was kind of shocked, nobody said a word, and it was a tight game...