Bang-bang, steal or block?

[so cal lurker]

Originally Posted by frezer11

As others have said, you kind of gotta see it to know what to call, but I will say this, if this happened near the sideline and the ball was knocked out of bounds, it sounds like the offense would retain possession regardless. I'm not saying that you should not call a foul, but if the contact was light or questionable, it might be another option, especially if you already had a high foul count on the defense. On the other hand, if the foul count was, say, 6-0 against the offensive team, then it might be an easy and legitimate way to get one on the D without making anything up.

Why should the foul count have anything to do with whether you call the foul?

(I do think there are weak officials who stop calling fouls beause of foul count -- which allows the team that is playing excessively physically to beat the crap out of the other team sometimes. A few solid foul calls on the perimert (or in the post), and then they stop calling the very same contact a foul. Pet peeve . . . . Referee what happens, not the foul count.)