# Basketball stat question: blocks and steals

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basketball-stat-question-blocks-and-steals/164886>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 28, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basketball-stat-question-blocks-and-steals/164886 "2003-03-28T21:01:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basketball-stat-question-blocks-and-steals/164886/21 "2003-03-30T21:33:49Z")

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The recent debacle with Cleveland’s Ricky Davis exposed to me the rule in the NBA where if you deliberately shoot the ball at your own basket, it’s a violation. Presumably that’s even if the ball goes in.

I would think that rule is on the books to prevent players from trying to pad their stats and also to prevent someone from altering the point spread of a game, just in case someone is the world’s stupidest man on the take.

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**Author:** ![JaxBeachBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@JaxBeachBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaxBeachBoy)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basketball-stat-question-blocks-and-steals/164886/22 "2003-03-31T04:10:00Z")

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I dont believe there was any violation on that play, except for the foul that occurred after the “rebound”

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**Author:** ![Auntie\_Social](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@Auntie\_Social](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntie_Social)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basketball-stat-question-blocks-and-steals/164886/23 "2003-03-31T04:30:13Z")

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But he didn’t get credited with the rebound, right? So there must be some recognition in the rules that “Players shooting at their own basket shall not be credited with rebounds, but rather marked as ‘dumb fucks’” or some such…

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**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basketball-stat-question-blocks-and-steals/164886/24 "2003-03-31T05:10:23Z")

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Articles that appeared online regarding the Ricky Davis incident indicated that there should have been a violation called when he deliberately shot at his own basket, and he was not awarded the rebound for it.

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