Fumble or self-pass

[dave30]

Offensive player starts to pass the ball. The ball slips from his hand and goes four or five feet away.

Can the player go get the ball or is it travelling?

Is it different if the player dribbled then stopped and tried to pass and lost the ball or if he just caught a pass and then tried to pass and lost the ball?

[just another ref]

Originally Posted by dave30

Offensive player starts to pass the ball. The ball slips from his hand and goes four or five feet away.

Can the player go get the ball or is it travelling?

Is it different if the player dribbled then stopped and tried to pass and lost the ball or if he just caught a pass and then tried to pass and lost the ball?

If he has not used his dribble, he can go get it either way. If he has used his dribble you must decide if it is a fumble or a lousy pass. The fumble he may recover. The lousy pass he may not.

[BktBallRef]

Dave, check the definition of a pass in Rule 4. There's no such thing as a self pass.

If he fumbles the ball as he releases the pass, it's just a fumble. He can retrieve it.

If he passes the ball, goes after it and touches it first, he started a dribble. If he's already dribbled, it's a violation.

[dave30]

Thanks. That's what I thought, but my rulebooks were in my car and I knew the answer would be here!

[sallender]

Always remember,

You can fumble - dribble - fumble

but you can never

dribble - fumble - dribble

[Huntin' Ref]

I have seen this happen more and more this season......

A1 tries to make a pass to A2 who "should" be popping out from a down-screen. A2 actually circles across the lane but A1 starts the pass, tries to stop the pass (think "tuck-rule" in football) but it still slips in the direction of the originally intended path. For arguments sake, A1 has already used up their dribble prior to the fumble/pass.

What do you have?

[Adam]

A fumble.