The joys of my evening

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by just another ref

That's what I read also. In the first play, the explanation as I understand it, was that the contact was incidental to a block which was (I agreed) clean on top. The contact, which came after the block, did not affect the shot, so therefore was not a foul. But in the second play, there is a missed block attempt. The shooter is subsequently contacted on his way down and is also knocked to the floor. Like the first play, the shot was not affected. Why is the second play a foul while the first is not?

All I can say is that the rules on incidental contact are very clear and say that contact can be severe and not be a foul. That means that a player can be knocked to the floor for all kinds of things and not have a foul. I know I do not call fouls on screens that are legally set and the player being screened falls to the ground hard as a result. So why is this play so hard to understand. One play had a clean block (which means they got to the ball first and legally) and the other the player made contact, then made the block. Again, I am not going to continue to argue this with you, but just will say that if you call that in the places I work, you will not be working very long. And those that usually call the game like this, do not work with a lot of tall or athletic players. And I almost never see an experienced official call these plays fouls but when I read this board someone like you claims we have to call a foul on these "becasue the shooter got knocked to the floor." Like there are never shooters that fall to the floor and we have never seen a foul not called.

Originally Posted by just another ref

I believe what I said was that when a defender who is actively making a play knocks an airborne shooter to the floor, never say always, but this is pretty much gonna be a foul.

Well I do not have to work with you, so call what you like.

Peace