Contact after ball is released

[ChuckElias]

It's kind of slow, so I'm just soliciting opinions about this play, which is fairly common. A1 jumps and shoots the ball. B1 attempts to block the shot. After the ball is clearly out of A1's hands, B1 contacts A1's shooting hand with his "follow-through" (almost looks like A1 and B1 are high-fiving). Assume that the contact is enough so that a slap can be heard.

Do you call this a foul? In 99.9% of the cases, I let this go. There's no effect on the play, the shot is away, it seems like a "cheap" call. But I worked with a guy this week who called three times in one game (at least he was consistent). Thoughts?

Chuck

[RecRef]

For me this is not an easy situation to justify letting it go but I do. The problem is that the rules give an airborne shooter extra protection and I can see where no contact should be allowed.

Just a hand slap IÂ’ll let go. Other contact I will call.

[Dan_ref]

Assuming the ball is clearly in flight I'll generally let
this go. But after a couple of times by the same player or
team I might call it, it's pretty sloppy defense and it
could cause the shooter to rush or alter his shot eventually.

[Jurassic Referee]

Straight judgement call!If the contact is fairly minimal and has no effect on the shot or the shooter,I'll let it go.If the defender hits the shooter hard enough to knock him off balance or down,I'll generally call it.In this case-hand to hand-I usually let it go.I also check to see if the shooter can come down and immediately follow his shot or get back on D.If he can,no harm/no foul.
The one call that I see way too much off is a foul called on a defender who's got his arms straight up,and the shooter follows through on the shot to initiate the contact.The concept of "refereeing the defense" grew out of wrong calls like this.

[ChuckElias]

Great post, JR. Seriously, I couldn't agree more.

[Stan]

Originally posted by RecRef
For me this is not an easy situation to justify letting it go but I do. The problem is that the rules give an airborne shooter extra protection and I can see where no contact should be allowed.

Just a hand slap IÂ’ll let go. Other contact I will call.

I agree here 100%

[JRutledge]

All I care about is what happens during the follow through. If a player completes it with little or no contact, not foul. If the shooter cannot land properly, extend their arms properly or just maintain their normal balance, then we got a foul.

Those are my basic things I look for.

Peace