Illinois vs Michigan State Foul On Free Thrower (Video)

[so cal lurker]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

I agree with your points on this.

A player intentionally contacts an opponent during a dead ball and it is not just accidental bumping that neither meant to have occur, it can be a T. There is no reason to smack an opponent anywhere well after the ball is dead.

I'd humbly suggest that the key is the phrase "well after." In other words, was the contact a continuation of legitimate play that happened to occur after the ball became dead. Or was it a doofus committing an unsportsmanlike act to intimidate an opponent.

On the FT example, was it a "foul" by a player being aggressive and trying to make a basketball play of boxing out (nothing because not intentional within the spirit of the rule, even though he was trying to make contact to box out), or a thug trying to smack the shooter to make him think about being smacked while he shoots his next free throw (an unsporting act that is penalized as intentional dead-ball contact)?

I suspect that some, though not all, of the disagreement here is how the particular act is being pictured, and whether a particular poster is visualizing the cotnact as a natural (but late) part of the game or as a message being delivered by a thug.