Question about hand activity during shot.

[Vinski]

I’m still pretty new to officiating and still trying to identify the proper way to judge contact in different situations.

There are times when a shooter will be going up and toward the basket on a shot and a defender will block the shot by getting a hand on the ball and knocking it away but then make contact with the shooters arms after the block. There are times when I call this and I get protests from coaches and even comments from other observing refs that “that was all ball”. But I am 100% positive about the arm contact after the block and I’m sure it was obvious. Sometime you can even hear the “smack”. It’s true that the well executed defense of the block on the ball stopped the shot from scoring, but there is some contact after the block. Is this a foul? Does it depend on the severity of the contact? Most times, I don’t believe there was any real disadvantage place on the shooter in this case.