When does travel occur?

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Rules citation? Is the ball "loose"? Has it gotten "away" from the dribbler?

I don't have one, so there. I'd say it's loose in this case, even though it's not away from the dribbler.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

I don't have one, so there. I'd say it's loose in this case, even though it's not away from the dribbler.

Years ago(mid-late 80's iirc), the FED issued a ruling on what an interrupted dribble was. They did so because for a year or so they had a rule that said that it was a violation if you tried to continue dribbling after re-gaining control of an interrupted dribble. Stoopid rule; they got rid of it real quick. Anyway, the FED said that a dribble was "interrupted" if a player couldn't immediately dribble if they wanted to. Iow, it met the criteria of current rule 4-15-5--ball is loose or momentarily gets away from the dribbler. Note the word 'away'.

Unfortunately, like a lot of other interpretations issued, that one got lost in the sands of time. The rule book however still uses "loose" and "away from the dribbler". A ball simply bouncing at the side of a player is neither loose nor away.

That said, it's also my opinion that dropping the ball while airborne and not touching it again is not a violation. There's a case book play(4-44-3SitB) that says it's a violation if an airborne player drops the ball to the floor AND then dribbles. That case book play doesn't say that it's a violation if that airborne player only drops the ball to the floor and doesn't touch it again. I think that if the FED had meant for that scenario to be a violation also, they would have written it as such.