In or out?
 

A backboard has six sides, only one is out
As the saying goes

Player shoots from side of backboard, say 4,5 feet away, slightly
Behind it, shot because of angle catches corner of side of backboard and
angles towards endline.

In or out?

Play on.

Out.

Out.

If it had hit the side, it would have come back towards the shooter. Short of some wicked horizontal spin, the only way it changes direction towards the endline is to have hit the back of the board to at least some degree....and even more so since the the shot started from a point behind the plane of the backboard.

A ball which strikes the edge or a corner of the backboard can rebound at an unusual angle sometimes, especially when considering the spin of the moving ball.

I'm not calling the ball out of bounds unless I see it contact the back of the board. I won't be conducting a physics class on the court and making a call based upon retrograde analysis.

I agree with this.

It's long been accepted that if an inbounder throws the ball and the ball rebounds back towards the endline, it hit the back of the backboard. If the ball rebounds farther out onto the playing court, the ball hit the side (or bottom) of the backboard.

So, if I was sure the player was behind (closer to the endline than) the backboard, I'd have OOB on the OP.

Benefit of the doubt, though, goes to the player NOT being closer to the endline.

Had a kids game with a friend and I was trail, I called it out as simple geometry dictates that at that angle it would have had to hit corner for that trajectory. Partner disagreed more to the point it was his call. Our discussion became is corner out.

Any shot directly hitting flat surface on side straight on would come straight back

I feel its an easier call when ball takes an odd angle and heads towards OB.

Of course you could let ball continue OB and it's a moot point, but there could be rebounding possibilities.

Ironically after we had a our spirited discussion, the next period, as I was lead, it hit side of backboard and came straight back, followed by another try with same results. We both had a good laugh.

Couldn't find any rule supporting either side.

In the 'if it walks like a duck' file.

Had this same thing happened last night, we played on. Nobody said a word.

If someone had asked, I would have told them, it looked like it the side to me.
:)

I think you can over analyze and officiate these situations.....Catch the big stuff. But it does make for good entertainment over my lunch hour.

I say it's out. If the ball hits the corner, forget about any spin thereafter, it's still hitting both in bounds and out of bounds simultaneously. Wouldn't that be the same as a ball that touches a piece of the boundary line and in bounds simultaneously?

I'm keeping it in until I have to call it out.

Y'all are mistaken when you say the only way a ball can rebound toward the end line is if it hit the back. The ball is round. Did we forget that?

Go stand directly on the side of the backboard. Throw the ball at the side such that it hits the side of the backboard on the corner nearest out of bounds. Watch it bounce toward the end line ... because the ball is round.

Think of the ball as a globe. The equator has to hit squarely on the side of the board for it to bounce straight back. As you get further from the center, the angle of the rebound will increase. If the Arctic circle is where the contact occurs, the angle can be quite dramatic. So does this contact on the side cause the ball to wrap around and simultaneously/immediately afterward contact the back? When in doubt (which will be almost all the time in this case) I will assume it did not.

That isn't the OP. In the OP, the player was closer to the end-line. That's when using the angle the ball rebounds comes into play.

I get that, but I was making the point that the ball going toward the end line is meaningless. The ball could rebound toward the end line from almost any angle without striking the back of the backboard.

The only "proof" it hit the back, based on angle alone, would be if it went toward the center of the base of the backboard after coming from outside the edge of the backboard.

Better... unless you KNOW it hit the back, it didn't hit the back.