The "hand is part of the ball" rule

[iamgine]

[QUOTE][I]The hand is considered

[JerrySeinfeld]

It doesn't really matter what the rule book says because each officiating crew is still going to call the game however they want. It's always been that way and the NBA's league office hasn't shown much of a serious interest in changing that.

[ISHGoat]

It doesn't really matter what the rule book says because each officiating crew is still going to call the game however they want. It's always been that way and the NBA's league office hasn't shown much of a serious interest in changing that.

cant believe i agree with this tard

[iamgine]

It doesn't really matter what the rule book says because each officiating crew is still going to call the game however they want. It's always been that way and the NBA's league office hasn't shown much of a serious interest in changing that.
True but I'm asking more about the intent of the rule. Does it mean when an opponent is dribbling, holding the ball, or shooting it is legal to just slap the back of his hand as hard as possible?

[ZMonkey11]

True but I'm asking more about the intent of the rule. Does it mean when an opponent is dribbling, holding the ball, or shooting it is legal to just slap the back of his hand as hard as possible?

Essentially yes, when the ball is in contact with your hand, you can slap that shit raw.

[ISHGoat]

^ technically yes, but I'm sure if you swing down hard and the ref HEARS the slap and sees a slap albeit not clearly, you're more likely to get called than if you lightly poked his hand

[JerrySeinfeld]

True but I'm asking more about the intent of the rule. Does it mean when an opponent is dribbling, holding the ball, or shooting it is legal to just slap the back of his hand as hard as possible?

I understand what you are looking for but let me explain why you won't get it, so it doesn't matter.

In most cases, rules are often formed when someone complains about a mechanic of the game, and then the majority agrees. For this example lets say that shot blockers were getting too many fouls called on them for slapping players hands while hitting the ball. So they complain and then within the NBA's power structure the majority agrees, and then the rule is then put into the rulebook, often with very vague or confusing wording.

And then they hold a meeting with the officials before the season and announce the new rule changes, and I guarantee you that officials each individually already start thinking about or already know how they are going to interpret that rule, and in many cases this interpretation varies from official to official but the league does a piss poor job of ever correcting it since they allow rules broken on almost every play (like traveling) to go without being called by the officials, too.

tl;dr - the league is a business and this process gives the refs power to interpret many rules however they want (technical fouls are a good example of this), making it impossible to determine what any of the rules really are because in the NBA almost no rules are a concrete thing, like traveling for instance.

[Rake2204]

Does this mean when an opponent is dribbling, holding the ball, or shooting you can just slap the back of his hand as hard as possible?I think this rule is more in reference to incidental contact. As in, during each play mentioned above, if a player is attempting to dislodge the ball and happens to make contact with the hand (as long as it's a part of the hand that is literally touching the ball at that very moment) then no, it theoretically would not be a foul.

Even if we wanted to remove the idea of contact having to be incidental, hitting just the hand when that portion of the hand on the ball is a tricky move to pull off intentionally and with regularity. It's very easy to get just a touch of wrist or at least appear to get a piece of the wrist, which would then lead to a foul call.

As for people reaching back and trying to intentionally pimp slap a player's hand when it's touching the ball... that's probably going to be a no-go. I believe the rule is more for the situations when an offensive player has the ball poked away while contact with the hand is made - so they can't say "I was fouled! He hit my hand a little!"

[Out_In_Utah]

Yes, and yes to post #2 as well.

[iamgine]

It would be nice to have a clarity about the intent of this rule. Not only for the NBA but because a lot of casual pick up games follow NBA rules but doesn't know/understand this part.

[kshutts1]

Does this mean when an opponent is dribbling, holding the ball, or shooting you can just slap the back of his hand as hard as possible?
I hate this rule. So much.

The rules are so inconsistent. We expect top-of-the-world athletes to avoid a full-speed top-of-the-world athlete (charge/block call) in the blink of an eye... we expect these athletes to move their hands/arms in time (rip through move), yet we can't ask them to hit all ball? Be consistent.

[navy]

True but I'm asking more about the intent of the rule. Does it mean when an opponent is dribbling, holding the ball, or shooting it is legal to just slap the back of his hand as hard as possible?
Yes. But its hard to get all hand and no ball.

[Rake2204]

It would be nice to have a clarity about the intent of this rule. Not only for the NBA but because a lot of casual pick up games follow NBA rules but doesn't know/understand this part.I think it helps to keep in mind that the "hand is a part of the ball" rule really refers to incidental contact with a portion of the hand that is literally touching the ball at that moment.

So, for instance, if a player rises up to shoot and the ball is on their fingertips, a defender slapping the offensive player's hand should result in a foul and not be covered under the "hand is part of the ball" definition.

Particularly in streetball, I've seen oodles and oodles of misinterpretations, where people take the "hand is part of the ball" saying and believe it means hitting and slapping an offensive player's hands at any given point is a play-on situation when it actually is not.