Advantage/Disadvantage

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by Back In The Saddle

I believe this is it:

Hand-checking. Defenders are not permitted to have hands on the dribbler or offensive players away from the ball. Hand-checking is not incidental contact; it gives a tremendous advantage to the person using illegal hands/tactics. An offensive player who uses his/her hands or body to push off in order to create a more favorable position has committed a foul. Regardless of where it happens on the floor, when a player:
1) Continuously places a hand on the opposing player – it is a foul.
2) Places both hands on a player – it is a foul.
3) Continuously jabs a hand or forearm on an opponent – it is a foul.

To my mind, this statement is not saying that hand checks are in some sense "automatic" independent of whether they create an illegal advantage.

Rather, it gives examples of how hand checking creates an illegal advantage and thus why hand checks need to be called more.

Helping officials recognize advantage/disadvantage is different from announcing "automatic" fouls, IMO. Officials and coaches should not interpret this kind of statement as endorsing an "automatic" foul independent of advantage/disadvantage.