Leg Tap

[APG]

As far as I know, NFHS, NCAA, and NBA all have rules against face guarding in certain situations. In every venture of basketball I have watched (and especially since I started officiating), I have never, ever seen this considered this face guarding or had an evaluator say anything to the fact.

NCAA Men's wording:

Section 6. (Men) CLASS B TECHNICAL INFRACTIONS
Art. 1. A technical foul shall be assessed to a player or a substitute for the
following infractions:

a. Purposely obstructing an opponent’s vision by waving or placing
hand(s) near his eyes.

NCAA women's is vary similar. I believe the NFHS wording as been posted already (at least the philosophy and how the rule is to be interpreted).

The NBA wording is a lot more specific:

m. Eye guarding (placing a hand in front of the opponent’s eyes when guarding from the rear) a player who does not have possession of the ball is illegal and an unsportsmanlike technical shall be assessed.

For as long as I was playing basketball, it's been taught that it's good defense to place a hand in the shooter's face to challenge the shot. I feel that we have (or might already), see this happen more cause Shane Battier, a SG/SF who is an excellent defender has use this tactic with varying success when guarding Kobe Bryant. In fact, I know the TV announcers have made it a point to say how instead of trying to block the shot, Battier would but a hand up in the face to challenge the shot. There would never be contact though would be times where it would be close. No one every made a fuss about it.