Face-Guarding (photo)
 

I was looking through some Basketball pictures and came across some face-guarding. I see this in my games from time to time and was going through some old threads to read some opinions on it.

I thought I would create a new thread with this picture and get your thoughts on it.

Would you call the T? Give a warning? or ignore because it was on a shot (as has been mentioned in previous threads)?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35214579/FaceGuarding.JPG

I've got nothing except a legal challenge to the shot assuming no contact.

Legal.

Hard to Say
 

That is a difficult thing to assess from a still shot. In real life the proximity of the defender's hand to the shooter's face may or may not have been an issue. Wish we had a live action clip from which we can draw conclusions based not on a single frame but on the relation of hand to face through the whole play.
I frankly have not seen this for as long as I can remember, which goes back to the Magic Johnson MSU era. :o

Face Off ...
 

When the face guarding rule was changed, a few years ago, to include a player with the ball, we were instructed that a defender is still allowed to contest the shot with a hand in the shooter's face as shown in the above photo.

You cannot determine much by a photo anyway. I cannot tell if the shooter is coming forward or if the arm came forward. And it is a shot where it is acceptable to put your arm up. I would only be concerned with this rule when a ball handler is standing up and the defender is putting their hands in their face in that situation, not a shot where there are more moving parts.

Peace

Yeah, I was not there for this photo, but your right, could be difficult to tell from a photo. I just came across it and it didn't look right.

Thanks for the feedback.

While it isn't always clear from a still photo and you can't be certain about this specific example, the rule is that a defender can't use their hand to block the vision of an opponent. If that defender is putting their hand right in their face and not playing the ball, it is not legal. By rule, it is a T. Having their hands up in a way that happens to block the vision doesn't count....just putting it in the face for no other purpose. It is pretty easy to tell of they are targeting the vision or just getting their arms up.

10-3-6 Player Technical

A player shall not commit an unsporting foul. This includes acts...such as:

d. Purposely obstructing an opponents vision by waving or placing hand(s) near his/her eyes.

The photo sure looks to me like the defender is purposely putting a hand in the shooters face (but it is just a snapshot). The tone and action leading up to the shot would probably tell us more. I'll usually give one specific warning like "Don't do that again or I WILL T you up". I've only done it twice in 12 years and it stopped immediately. Too dangerous to be tolerated in my opinion. I'll err on the side of caution and try to stop it quickly.