scrapper, in that rule, the dribbler becomes airborne when he executes a "jump try for goal."

Correct, but all that means is that the dribbler is not allowed to contact the defender in order to jump. (Picture "leaning in" with a shoulder to slightly push the defender back, then jumping to attempt the try. This is a very common method of "creating space" for the shot.) The rule is NOT talking about a player who is already airborne. That's clear by calling the player a dribbler, rather than an "airborne shooter".

Scrappy, I'm still waiting for you to cite me a rule, any rule, that says a defender can lose a legal position in the direct path of an offensive player by simply backing straight up. And note that the defender with the legal position on the court in the direct path of the offensive player was backing up before the offensive player went airborne.

Here is what the rule says (4-23):

Guarding is the act of legally placing the body in the path of an offensive opponent.

Is there any time in this situation that the player is not in the path?

It also says (about OBTAINING position)....

If the opponent is airborne, the guard must have obtained legal position before the opponent left the floor.

Note that it doesn't say anything about a spot or at the point of contact....just about when LGP must be obtained. This is in the section about OBTAINING position. Do you agree that the player in this situation has LGP before stepping back? Did the player obtain initial LGP? Yes.

It also says (about MAINTAINING position):

After the initial legal guarding position has been obtained: The guard may move laterally or obliquely to maintain position....

I can find no place that says this rule no longer applies once a player is airborne. The only rule regarding airborne players is in regards to OBTAINING initial position.

For a player that has LGP, this rule allows a defender the freedom of movement. In particular, it allows rearward movement even when guarding an airborne player. Any other movement would imply the defender was no longer in the path of the airborne player and, as a result, the defender no longer had LGP to maintain....movement would be in order to re-obtain a LGP...which is not allowed after the opponent is airborne. (Some lateral movement could be legal as long as B1 was already in A1's path where such movement would either be insignificant or would take B1 out of A1's path).

FINALLY!!! LOL. This is the obvious and the only rule-based objection to my position that really has any bite. I'm not sure it's fatal, but I've been waiting for 2 days for somebody to throw it in my face. I skirted my way around it in post #56, and nobody called me on it.

So now that Camron has called me on it, I'm going to try to say why I don't think it's actually a problem for me.

(I'm actually going to use Camron's own objection against him.)

4-23-4b does not talk about the point of contact. It only talks about obtaining a legal position. Camron's absolutely right about that. But he's wrong when he states that the rule addresses "when LGP must be obtained". It only addresses obtaining a "legal position".

The rule doesn't actually refer to LGP. "Legal guarding position" is a very specific term and is used explicitly for a specific purpose in Articles 2 and 3 of 4-23. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to think that if the rulemakers had intended LGP -- in that specific sense -- to be a consideration, they would have simply included the phrase in the rule, just as they did in Articles 2 and 3. Especially since they just discussed obtaining a legal guarding position in 4-23-4a. But they didn't do that.

I don't think it's talking about "obtaining an initial legal guarding position", because that's covered in 4-23-2. If that's what they were talking about, they could have included it as 4-23-2c. And they're obviously not talking about maintaining a legal guarding position (since the rule explicitly uses the word "obtained".)

So since the rule isn't talking about LGP, what does it mean to obtain a legal position? It just means to get to your spot on the floor without being out of bounds. And you have to get there before the opponent became airborne.

Am I stretching? Yeah, probably. But to me, this makes more sense than saying that it's not legal to move laterally into an opponent's landing spot but that it is legal to move backwards into an opponent's landing spot. That makes absolutely no sense at all, based on the rules. In fact, based on Camron's excellent post, even Jurassic would be compelled to say that it IS, in fact, legal to move laterally into an opponent's landing space. And as I said earlier, that is an unacceptable result.

I'm going to say that the rules have a lacuna: they don't say how a defender may maintain legal position while the shooter is airborne. Scrapper says this can be done only by staying put; JR et al. say that this can be done also by retreating.

Let's request a new rule. :)

Bottom line: If the defender is on the floor in the path of the offensive player when the player becomes airborne, and the defender's only movement is directly away from the offensive player, it is impossible for this defender to commit a blocking foul, whether he ever had legal guarding position or not.

This is true (in NFHS rules), although I'm not sure why it's the bottom line. . . :)

Because Stone Cold JAR said so!

I'll put it this way. If the defender is on the floor in the path of the offensive player when the player becomes airborne, and the defender's only movement is directly away from the offensive player and you call a block your supervisor will not be happy.

I am unable to locate "landing spot" in my rule book. Yet it figures prominently in the 90% block argument. Certainly we use the phrase "landing spot" often to explain certain fouls to players/coaches. But unless I'm missing something (and it wouldn't be the first time), "landing spot" is not a rules-based consideration.

What is a consideration is "If the opponent with the ball is airborne, the guard must have obtained legal position before the opponent left the floor". Clearly the player in Scrappy's scenario obtained legal position before the opponent left the floor. He also obtained LGP, which grants additional rights beyond mere "legal position". One of those rights is the right to move, within prescribed limits, to maintain position. Movement backward, away from the opponent, and in the same path is clearly within those limits.

So if the guard obtained legal position before the shooter left the floor, and he did not move toward the opponent when contact occurs (thus going outside the prescribed limits on movement to maintain)...how is this a block? Did he do something to lose legal position? If so, what? It can't be about "landing spot".

I alluded to it in post 46...http://forum.officiating.com/basketball/58474-block-player-control-no-call-4.html

In this case, the guarding is implied. Articles 4 & 5 are futher qualifying when how legal position can be obtain relative to the movement of the opponent. It doesn't not alter the obtaining/maintaining of LGP. The two are intertwined. If the player has LGP, then they also have a legal position. If they have legal position, they might have LGP depeding on other factors.

All fine, but irrelevant.

In this case, both legal position and LGP were obtained prior to the shooter going airborne. There are no restrictions on maintaining legal position but there are on LGP. If B1 had legal position at the moment A1 left the floor, that is all that is required by 4-23-4b & 4-23-5d.

But nowhere does it define that legal position is a fixed spot on the floor.

Throw out the rules for just a moment and thing about whether it even makes sense. It doesn't. It goes against all logic.



It does NO such thing. If the player has to move laterally to get into the path of an airborne player, they've already lost any LGP they had and they are trying to OBTAIN a legal position and LGP....which can't be done after the shooter goes airborne.

Correct. The key factors are being in the path of the opponent and having obtained legal position before the opponent goes airborne.

You are making an error in writing "a" before "legal position," as that implies a particular location. Please note that the rule does not have this article and only requires the defender to have obtained "legal position," which entails placing his body in the path of the opponent. The defender doesn't have to get there, as you write, rather he can be anywhere along the path. That's fundamental to correctly understanding this play.

A player who must move laterally to reach the location where an airborne opponent will land and cause a crash would not have been in his path and thus didn't have legal position. However, a player who moves directly backwards did have his body in the path of the opponent prior to him leaving the floor. That is how I can rationalize a difference in ruling on these two actions.

There is no way that the intent and purpose of the rule is to penalize a defender for stepping backwards after an onrushing opponent jumps towards him. For the rules to state that it would be a foul on the defender in this case would not maintain the carefully crafted balance between the offense and the defense which the NFHS states the rules are intended to create.

Isn't that what happened in the play below?

Are you saying that B1 falling kills the deal? If he had stood still and A1 had done the same thing, it would have been PC? If he had stepped backward prior to the crash, it would have been PC?

So. . .

B1 establishes a LGP on A1, who is dribbling. A1 moves laterally in an attempt to dribble around B1. B1 is able to move laterally back into A1's path and contact occurs on B1's torso. Can we agree that this is a player control foul? I think so.

Now. . .

B1 establishes a LGP on A1, who is dribbling. A1 jumps laterally in an attempt to release a try. B1 is able to move laterally back into A1's path and contact occurs on B1's torso (before A1 returns to the floor). You guys are saying that this is a blocking foul (which, of course, it is).

How do you justify the difference? B1 was originally in the path of A1 in both plays. A1 took a different path in both those plays. B1 was able to get back into the path before the contact in both those plays. B1 was not moving toward A1 at the time of contact in either play. Yet one is a PC and one is a block. Why?

It seems you're both saying that B1 maintains LGP on a dribbler who changes paths but LOSES his LGP on a player who changes paths by jumping, as I've highlighted in red above. Is there any rule basis at all for such a distinction? :confused: