Every single time, and I mean every, Shaquille O’Neal puts his left foot over the free throw line as part of his follow-through. I thought the NBA rule was that players in the lane could not enter until the shooter’s release, and the shooter could not enter the lane until the ball hits the rim. What’s the deal?
Well, according to item d, it shouldn’t count.
Everytime the announcers whine about how bad a team shoots free throws, they never mention the fact this happens.
Section I-Free Throw
a. After the ball is placed at the disposal of a free throw shooter, his attempt shall be within 10 seconds in such a way that the ball enters the basket or touches the ring before it is touched by a player. The shooter shall be within that part of the free throw circle behind the free throw line.
b. A player shall not touch the ball or basket while the ball is on or within the basket.
c. A player who occupies a free throw lane space shall not touch the floor on or across the free throw lane line, nor shall any player ‘back out’ more than 3’ from the free throw lane line. A player who does not occupy a free throw lane space must remain behind the three-point line. This restriction applies until the ball leaves the free thrower’s hands.
d. The free throw shooter may not cross the plane of the free throw line until the ball touches the basket ring, backboard, or the free throw ends.
e. No player shall deflect or catch the ball before it reaches the basket or backboard on a free throw attempt.
f. The free throw shooter shall not purposely fake a free throw attempt.
g. An opponent in the game shall not disconcert the free thrower in any way, once the ball has been placed at the disposal of the shooter.
h. No violation can occur if the ball is not released by the free throw shooter.
This “plane of the free throw line” rule was one of the rules supposedly put in place to contain the dominance of Wilt Chamberlain–who, when taking free throws, could jump from the free throw line and get close enough to lay the ball in before he hit the ground. And that used to count.
But, seriously…rules such as these in the NBA are never called. There’s a mile-long list of such rules, and this one is probably somewhere in the middle.
Mark Cuban (owner of the Mavs) has talked about this for a while now. He has even employed stats people to track refs and see what they call/ don’t call.
I don’t truly believe that the NBA is fixed, but when I see the quality of refereeing and the calls made, it does make me think that they could do just as well picking a couple of yokels off of the street to ref these games. Whether a call is good or bad, it would be darn nice if it was at least consistently called.
Wonderful! Just goes to show you once again that rules don’t apply to superstars or teams in major media markets.