top of backboard

[gduck]

Hi everyone - I am just starting out this year as a ref for a church ball league. No one and everyone knows the rules, if you know what I mean. I have really enjoyed reading your entries during the past couple of months - helps me answer a lot of questions for myself and for some of the fine players in the league.

Quick question - if the ball hits the top of the backboard and falls forward (in front of the backboard), is the ball out of bounds?

Thanks

[IUgrad92]

All 'sides' of the backboard are in play. However, if it hits any support cables, brackets, etc. then it becomes a dead ball immediately, no matter which side the ball fall afterwards. If the ball hits the top of the backboarad then falls back on the rim side, then play on. If it falls over the backside then it's a dead ball.

[Mark Padgett]

If this is a church league, you may be playing in some gyms with the older fan-shaped backboards. The rules for the ball going over the "top" of the backboard toward the wall (not hitting the top and coming back toward the rim) are different than for a rectangular backboard. With the rectangle, a ball that does what I described is OOB, but with a fan-shaped it is not. The theory is that you cannot distinguish what the "top" of a fan-shaped board really is, so the entire edging is considered the "side".

I'm sorry if you are even more confused now. I didn't mean to befuddle the issue.

[BktBallRef]

Originally posted by IUgrad92
All 'sides' of the backboard are in play.

Actually, the "backside" is OOB. I'm not being facetious, as it's come up before. The top, botton, each side parallel to the sidelines, and the front are all inbounds.

[paulis]

Also, a ball can be passed behind the backboard (along the baseline) but completely behind the backboard.

[Ridge Wiz]

I believe everyone is assumming the ball is comming from the rim side & traveling toward to endline as it goes over the top of the backboard (BB). When the ball goes over the top of the BB it is OOB. Therefore it doesn't matter which direction the ball is traveling. For instance, a fade-away jumper by Larry Bird which travels over the BB would be OOB in NFHS even if the ball doesn't touch anything but the bottom of the net. I have worked a few games (rec league) were a kid shot the ball, by accident, behind the BB. The ball usually hit the backside of the BB.

[bossref]

Yeah, the top is ok.
But the ball cannot pass over the board
from either direction.
The rule was written because in 1957
at Kansas U there was a rather tall
player named Wilt Chamberlain.
They ran an out of bounds play with him in the key.
They simply tossed the ball over the board for
an alley-oop slam dunk. It wasn't very fair since
the Stilt was so much bigger than everyone else.
Larry Bird's version of shooting the
ball over really didn't gain him any advantage.

[Slider]

Originally posted by bossref
Yeah, the top is ok.
But the ball cannot pass over the board
from either direction.
The rule was written because in 1957
at Kansas U there was a rather tall
player named Wilt Chamberlain.
They ran an out of bounds play with him in the key.
They simply tossed the ball over the board for
an alley-oop slam dunk. It wasn't very fair since
the Stilt was so much bigger than everyone else.
Larry Bird's version of shooting the
ball over really didn't gain him any advantage.

What is different about this pass to Stilt? Doesn't he always have that advantage?

[Mark Padgett]

Originally posted by Slider

What is different about this pass to Stilt? Doesn't he always have that advantage?

BTW - I heard they're making a movie about Wilt. He's going to be played by Gary Coleman.

And no - this is not a racist joke. It's a "short" joke.