Hoops

Rules question re direction of motion

"Its a no charge zone not a no block zone."

Yep - that's what I wrote ;)

Its a no charge zone not a no block zone. The defender still has to be in a legal guarding position within the NCZ or its a blocking foul. In addition the NCZ only comes into play if the offensive player is airbourne and is in the act of shooting or passing. If the offensive player is grounded normal contact rules apply

the exception these days is inside the "charge" semi-circle - you can't call a charge if the defence's last foot plant was inside that semi-circle. - but the ref can decide to not call a block if they are certain the contact was caused entirely by the offence..

"There used to be a rule that if a defender had established a clear direction of motion and the attacker changed direction to cause contact, then it was a foul by the attacker."

This was always a bit of a furphy, like the one which went " if the ball does not get passed to the player in the key , its not a three seconds " - that one came from a misunderstanding of the interpretation where ' if the player is clealy attempting to exit the keyway, or is being prevented from exiting the keyway while they are in the act of exiting it - don't call the violation - give them an oportunity to exit."


the interpretation that may have give rise to your furphy are

- if the defensive player has been totally committed to a path that is currently not intersecting with the path of the offensive player - and the offensive player deliberately changes direction in order to contact that defensive player, and there is contact that is unavoidable by the defense ( ie the defensive player does not grab or slap the offense with their arms, hands or feet) it is not a foul by the defense.


Eddie crouch used to drive Phil Smyth absolutely crazy with this one, as phil had a tendancy to deliberately go into reverse and go backwards into a defense that was following him closely on the dribble, or would jump backwards into the defense that was jumping vertically behind him going for the block. Eddie would mostly ignore it and call nothing or would occasionally call a charge on smyth instead.

The crux of the matter is that if the defence has no way of avoiding the offence because the offensive has chosen to move into the defence's path after the defence has left the ground, then it cant be a foul. its either playon or a foul on the offence.

remember for a foul to be a foul it has to have

1) physical contact
2) be illegal contact under the rules
3) create a disadvantage or an illegal advantage

I hope that helps

"The ones that annoy me are when 2 refs with a decent view hold their whistles, and the 3rd guy who obviously couldn't see the contact, calls the foul based on the flopping and supposition."

Yeah but Vaughan Mayberry has mystical powers

There used to be a rule that if a defender had established a clear direction of motion and the attacker changed direction to cause contact, then it was a foul by the attacker.

Depends on who's home game it is

It's easy - the foul gets called against the guy who doesn't tumble to the ground dramatically.

It all comes down to whether it's "heads or tails" in the ref's mental coin toss