Intentional Foul???

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Eastshire

So you're willing to accept players kicking each other above the waist as part of the game of basketball?

That's your take-away from my refusal to call this automatic? Seriously?

I think I'm on record as saying I would have called this play intentional; but I'm not basing that on reasoning from soccre roules.

Kicking at the ball happens all the time, it's part of the game. As an outnumbered defender on fast breaks, I used it all the time back in high school. I used it to prevent post passes.

In the OP, it's a defender using feet because of poor positioning; not really much different in theory than a single defender using it during a fast break to make the offense set up again.

The only difference is that in the OP, the offense is "holding" the ball when the kick attempt is made. I'm less inclined to call that a common or shooting foul because of safety concerns; but that inclination has really little to do with whether it's above or below the waste.