Question about Backcourt
 

I was playing with some friends the other day and this came up. The ball was already established in the frontcourt, and was passed to a player running in from the backcourt. He jumped from the backcourt, caught the ball, landed in the frontcourt. Is this a violation?

I thought it was, but others insisted it was not. I thought you had to have your feet down in the front court first. Anyway, couldn't find anything explicit in the nba rules about this situation.

It's a backcourt violation as soon as he touches the ball while airborne. By rule, even though he is airborne, he is considered to be where he was last in contact with the court, and that is in the backcourt in your play. Your buddies owe you a beer.

That's exactly what I thought. Any idea where I could find this in the rulebook? (They won't surrender that beer without hard evidence ;) )

I don't know about the NBA book, but in FED you can derive it from the definitions of ball location and player location

If we gave you the hard evidence how would you be able to prove it? Unless you are an official, giving you numbers with dashes (or rules references) are not going to mean much to you.

Peace

As long as one foot is still in the air (as opposed to still being on the floor in the BC), only one foot needs to be down in the FC to be legal. Your buddy committed a violation, but hey, it's pickup ball. :)

Not really sure what is meant here... Obviously pointing them to an nba rulebook is better proof than me just saying it's so.

I did find this nba rule:
4.VI.c. A ball being held by a player: (1) is in the frontcourt if neither the ball nor the player is touching the backcourt, (2) is in the backcourt if either the ball or player is touching the backcourt.

This doesn't help that much since it's unclear what "touching the backcourt" means, especially when a player is in the air.

As I am not smart enough to quote the books or cite a paragraph number, etc., I always explain it this way:

If you are on the court and jumping to save a ball that is going out of bounds and you jump and touch the ball while you are in the air, you are not out of bounds until you land or touch something out of bounds.

Same applies for this situation: If you are in the backcourt and jumping to the frontcourt and you jump and hit/catch the ball while you are in the air, you are not in the frontcourt until you land in the frontcourt.

Most understand the analogy.

As always - "you are where you are, until you get where you're going"

Ah, that's a good comparison. Thanks!

If you're trying to win a beer, you need to look for the player location definition.

Yeah that's what I was looking for but couldn't find...

NFHS rules:
Rule 4 Section 35.....Specifically Artical 3

SECTION 35 PLAYER LOCATION
ART. 1 . . . The location of a player or nonplayer is determined by where the player is touching the floor as far as being:

a. Inbounds or out of bounds.
b. In the frontcourt or backcourt.
c. Outside (behind/beyond) or inside the three-point field-goal line.

ART. 2 . . . When a player is touching the backcourt, out of bounds or the three-point line, the player is located in backcourt, out of bounds,or inside the three-point line, respectively.

ART. 3 . . . The location of an airborne player with reference to the three factors of Article 1 is the same as at the time such player was last in contact with the floor or an extension of the floor, such as a bleacher.

To be honest with you, most of us are not NBA Officials. We really do not have the NBA Rulebook in most of our back pockets. And without you identifying yourself as an official, it is hard to know how to answer your question so that you can prove you were correct. I am not familiar with the specifics of the NBA Rulebook, but you might want to look at anything that talks about player location and look up anything that might have a case play. Unfortunately, I do not know if the NBA has such a thing to give interpretations.

Peace

You are where you were until you get where you're going.

Why do you want an NBA rule citation--Do you play in the NBAor pro-league? If you are not a professional player, you should be using NCAA or HS/Federation rules