Play for Discussion No Call or Foul

[rwest]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

I had a screen shot I made of the middle of that play but I seem to have misplaced it...perhaps on my other machine. It shows blue coming over white's leg (in mid-stride) and side to get to the position where the elbow could make the contact it did. And prior to that, long before the elbow is involved, white is reaching across blue to hold him from cutting...then the elbow comes up to get that arm off of him.

A defender doesn't get to fly into an opponent and get bailed out because the contact happened to involve an elbow...one that was never extended....it was just there. It didn't knock the player over, the hip/body contact was already doing that.

To call the elbow rewards a defender who was out of position, late to the play, and illegal in more than one way. The elbow is easy to see and is an easy way out....but not the right call.

How many times do we (correctly) get accused of getting the 2nd, sometimes bigger, foul because it gets our attention, even though it was a reaction and retaliation to the first one. In this case, that is the 2nd foul (maybe even the 3rd). And, short of it being ruled intentional, is nothing since the first foul(s) made the ball dead.

Its hard to tell 100% but it appears to me that the defenders body gains momentum when the elbow contacts him. The elbow doesn't have to be extended to cause displacement. Not in this case. That's because the offensive player is moving to the basket. The arm, although stationary in relation to his body, is still moving. Physics 101. This causes a transfer of energy which causes the displacement. Had the elbow not been extended I don't believe the player would have been displaced as much as he was. I've slowed this video down as much as I can many times and can not still 100% determine if the hip was the greater cause for the displacement or the elbow. In real time, I have a foul. If it takes me slowing this play down frame by frame to convince myself otherwise, then I can live with my call on the floor.