Vid request missouri at nc state

[Adam]

Originally Posted by OKREF

ART. 2

To obtain an initial legal guarding position:

a. The guard must have both feet touching the playing court.

b. The front of the guard's torso must be facing the opponent.

Seems to me, these were met. I'm struggling with those who claim the defender must somehow be "in the path" as defined by the direction he's heading (a concept that is not so defined in the rules).

First, I'm not convinced the "in the path" wording of 4-23-1 applies to establishing LGP as spelled out in 4-23-2. 4-23-2 says nothing about the path.

Second, "the path" is not defined, and I have a hard time defining so narrowly as to exclude the space between the dribbler and his basket just because he happens to be heading in a slightly altered direction.

Based on this interpretation, I think it may be hard to justify a closely guarded count when the dribbler is moving away from the defender.