Block/Player Control/No Call

[Hornets222003]

Originally Posted by Scrapper1

It does, indeed. And I introduced it precisely because it shows that the majority opinion here would allow an unacceptable result.

According to the folks who agree with Jurassic, the defender in my scenario did not to anything illegal. He obtained a LGP, then maintained that position by moving laterally. Thus, when he is quick enough to move laterally into the airborne player's landing space, most folks here seem to think this should be a player control foul. I think that's unacceptable and not the intent of the rule.

As I've said, once a player becomes airborne, I honestly believe that no other player can move into that player's landing spot, even if they do so by what would otherwise be maintaining a LGP.

(Also, as I re-read this, I realize that it may sound like I'm calling Jurassic out or trying to be antagonistic to him. That's not my intent. I simply use his name because he's the primary person who has been having the conversation with me.)

In your situation, if the player moves laterally very quickly to get to the landing spot, I think you would have a block because the player would have to move toward the airborne player in order for this to occur. And no doubt under current human physical capabilities, the player would still be moving toward the airborne player when the contact occurs. I don't think most would disagree with you here. This is illegal by 4-21-3 c.

In the situation that we have been discussing, the player falls backward so they would be moving away from the airborne player. This is allowed. Therefore, they would have legally obtained a spot on the floor prior to the contact.

We could do some vector analysis (never thought I'd bring physics into a discussion here) and prove that the player was moving completely away from the airborne player during the play, but I don't think it's physically possible to slide into the spot without moving toward the player after he has jumped laterally away from the defender.

Just my opinion in this paragraph.
I would say that in your situation, if it were physically possible to move into the airborne shooters landing spot without moving toward him and get there and stop before he lands, then yes, there would be a PC foul. It may be a loophole in the rules as I read them and as you read them, but I just don't think that the athletes that we have today can do what you describe without doing something illegal. So you'd probably be right to call the block.