Faking Being Fouled

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by AllPurposeGamer

On this play, why have a whistle? The defender is legal after all...this isn't an RSBQ play to me...first of all, the ball handler was already trying to stop short of the defender before the defender tried going Hollywood. If the defender wouldn't have fell to the floor, we're not even discussing this play. By putting air in the whistle, you've penalized a defender that technically did nothing wrong.

Technically and by the letter of the rule, the defender faked being fouled and should have been tagged with a T. So, yes, the defender DID do something wrong.

However, it is the norm to not call the T unless the fake involved absolutely no contact and was clearly egregious. The rule doesn't require that their be no contact, but that is usually what it takes before anyone will even consider a T.

Short of the T, many officials will call a block since there actually was contact and the defender made it look like a lot of contact yet the dribbler didn't commit a charge. True, there was no meaninful effect on the dribbler and the actual contact was not really that much, but the block call is used to penalize the player without resorting to the T. I've done it. I don't do it all the time or even most of the time but there are situations where it cleans up a problem....it works. Not all foul calls need to depend on advantage/disadvantage. There are some that are called just because the type of contact is outside the range of what should be allowed.