Intentional Foul???

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by mbyron

Here's my problem with this: in basketball, there's no such thing as a (legal) attempt to play the ball with the foot.

As such, I think the foul cannot be common, and we should always go INT or flagrant with this kind of contact. Every contact with the foot will necessarily be excessive, because there's no possibility of non-excessive contact with the foot.

Here are my questions to you, based on the above:

If there's no such thing as a legal attempt to play the ball with the foot, what is the call if a player does indeed attempt, but misses? If the attempt itself is not legal, then shouldn't there be a call of some kind? What would that call be?

If every contact with the foot is indeed excessive, then how come, in Bob's example, you would only rule a TC (common) foul? Or, in Bob's first example, if the player makes contact with another player with their foot while trying to gather a ball on the floor (and for conversation's sake, let's say they haven't made contact with the ball yet to have the violation), would that automatically be an intentional foul?

I think Bob's point, and mine too, is that while the bar may be a little lower in determining excessive contact, there is no rule basis for saying the absolute of all purposeful contact with a foot or leg is automatically excessive, and therefore should only be intentional or flagrant. It's still a judgement call, and a common foul is still very much an option.