Cancellations of Equal Penalties

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by eg-italy

Ref_in_Alberta gave the correct explanation. I'd add some comment.

When in a "special situation", you should imagine to have a sheet of paper divided into two parts; on the left you mark all fouls with their penalties on team A and on the right the same for team B, in order of occurrence, without marking any double foul (it's obviously not the only infraction, since you are in a special situation ). All fouls should go in different horizontal lines.

Then go to the first foul and look in the opposite column if there is one that carries the same penalty: those penalties will cancel out. Proceed through the list in the same fashion until you get to the point that no penalty can cancel another. Then administer all remaining penalties in order of occurrence.

A throw-in for either team which is followed by another penalty is lost, but still is part of the relative penalty. A contrived example would be this: B1 commits a U foul on shooter A1; while the ball is in flight for the try, A2 pushes B2 going for the rebound, 5th team foul in the quarter; the basket is not scored.

The penalties are: 2 FT and ball for team A, 2 FT for team B. Team A loses the possession; A1 shoots 2 FT with lane cleared, then B2 shoots 2 FT and play resumes normally. The two penalties are different, so they do not cancel out.

Now, this may sound like a smart-a$$ question (and I've been known to ask one or two...), but are there instances where it actually becomes handy to write things down, in order to sort everything out? I'm thinking of an instance where you might have a common foul, followed by a shove back, then a punch is thrown, followed by players leaving the bench, etc. Are penalties that require ejections treated differently than a "normal" unsporting foul?