A blast from the past

[Mark Padgett]

I'm still living in an assisted living center since my heart operation and yesterday, a buddy called me about a call he had in a summer rec league game (NF rules). It triggered a memory I had (one of three memories I had all week ) of discussing this rule a really long time ago on this board. I used the search engine and found a thread I started back in November of 1999 (before some of you were born). Here it is:

Here's the scenario: A1 dribbling in frontcourt. A2 and A3 are still in their backcourt, picking their nose, checking out the babes in row 5, whatever. B1 slaps the ball away from A1. The ball DOES NOT touch A1 prior to going into A's backcourt. B1 does not pursue the ball, since there are members of team A back there and he feels the effort would be futile. Since A2 and A3 are about one fry short of a Happy Meal anyway, they also don't go after the ball and it kind of just bounces or rolls around in A's backcourt. Here's the multi-part question: 1)do you start a 10 second backcourt count 2)if so, when - when the ball achieves backcourt status or when it is touched by a member of A in the backcourt (if ever) 3)if the ball is untouched by A, would you actually count in a real game and 4)if not, why not. My answers are: 1)yes 2)when the ball first touches the backcourt 3)yes 4)n/a. What are yours? BTW - Happy Meal is a registered trademark of McDonald's, Inc. Just thought I'd throw that in.

I told him to look this old thread up and he would get his answer, but he told me he can't get the internet on his abacus. Do you guys agree with the answers in the thread?