The Call Most Often, or Most Egregiously, Missed

[JeffTheRef]

CASEBOOK 10.6.1 Situation A asks: "Is it correct to say that guarding takes place only when an opponent is playing against a player who has the ball?" The answer is no, and that exactly the same principles apply to situations without the ball as to those with . . .

Even more specifically, CASEBOOK 10.6.1 Situation B says: B1 takes a certain spot on the floor before A1 jumps from the floor to catch a pass: (a) A1 lands on B1; or (b) B1 moves to a new spot while A1 is airborne. A1 comes to the floor on one foot and then charges into B1. RULING: In (a) and (b), the foul is on A1.

Taken together, these two Casebook examples make the point. The principle that 'a player is entitled to land on a spot that was unoccupied when s/he took off' is inherent in the first example and is commonly illustrated in the literature referencing the airborne shooter. In the second example, the foul is on A1 because A1 came down on the floor before the contact happened. Otherwise, the foul would have, indeed, been on B1.