Art 5/19/44 Players: Injury/Substitutions/Special Situations (Minor): clarifying when a player who receive an assistance is treated as an injured player. If the game is stopped for:

• an injured player cannot resume immediately=doesn’t recover within 15″.
• a player receives assistance from a team member

THE PLAYER MUST BE REPLACED!
This is to eliminate interruptions in the game and manage the delay in the game resumption more consistently. Assistance can be on a shoe, a contact lens, loss of a taping, a problem with the game uniform, etc…

In the clip1 / just before the ball is at disposal to 3red a red team personnel assists the player by applying a black patch over the not allowed mark of the compression sleeve. The lead referee, correctly, requires the substitution of 3red who leaves the playng court.
In the event of a correctable error involving the player replaced for having been assisted, who has committed his fifth foul or has been disqualified, his substitute must participate in the correction of an error (Art 44.2.5).

Art 15 /Player in the act of shooting (AOS) (Major): there is a new definition for shooting and for continuous movement – note that we are talking about movement – not motion

The rule change intended to improve for players, coaches and referees to understand of whether the foul was committed in AOS or not. It Introduces consistent concepts with how the game is played, there being two types of AOS: the shot and the continuous movement. The continuous movement is divided into two parts: “drive to the basket” and “moving shot”. In every play referees should be able to identify whether the player in AOS was in “shot”, “drive to the basket” or “moving shot”. This requires more of the basketball knowledge as understanding the player shooting techniques, than just knowing the rule.

NEW DEFINITION:  Stationary shot: a classic example is the classic jump-shot. The player is not moving and is not progressing either without the ball or in dribbling.

• AOS  starts  after gathering the ball, with an upward movement of the arms in the shooting position and towards the basket, not necessarily in front of it.
• AOS  ends  when the ball leaves the shooter’s hands, or if the shooter is airborne, when both feet return to the floor. A player who passes the ball after being fouled is no longer in AOS.

NEW DEFINITION: Continuous movement. It covers two situations: drive to the basket (catch the ball moving or at completion of the dribble) and moving shot ( continue with the shooting movemen without stopping)

• AOS – starts – at the end of a dribble, receiving the ball as you walk/run, when the ball stops on the hand(s), This is called picking up!
• AOS – ends – when the ball leaves the shooter’s hands, or if the shooter is in the air, when both feet are back on the ground. A player who passes the ball after being fouled is no longer to be considered in AOS.

Clip 1: 55red after gathering, the stop and shooting fake , with both feet on the ground, begin the upward movement of the arms and is foled by 8white. 55red is in AOS, the foul had to be sanctioned with 2 free throws. (Foul contact occurs when there are still 0.2″ on the 24″ display).
Clip 2: 1yellow, is fouled by 10blue before gathering the ball. 1yellow when the contact occurs is not in AOS, he hasn’t complete the dribbling. The foul could be sanctioned as an unsportsmanlike foul (UF) but in case of personal foul (PF) the sanction had to be yellow ball possession – blue team not in foul penalty in the period.
For a better reading and consistent application of the criterion, the referees must identify whether at the moment of the foul contact (not at the moment of the call, which always arrives a moment late) the ball was already in the player’s hand(s) and that the player has already started the upward movement of the arms with a continuous and uninterrupted movement.

Every change, even tiny, always causes uncertainty, small or big anxieties, fear of making mistakes, but above all fear of not understanding or having understood good/bad? For some people the learning process will be rapid, for others slow in any case this will only be the beginning! There are referees who after a whole year are still struggling to assimilate the new. Especially under pressure, the referee draws on his experience, the sedimentary habits in years of refereeing will inevitably come out. Everyone will have his own ways and times to “empty the cup” and fill it with new knowledge. At the beginning an additional effort of concentration will be necessary, especially the control of what is being done on the field, the ability to reflect in the downtime if what is done is correct, the ability to help and the humility to be helped!

Clearly language can be an obstacle and that is why FIBA tries to use the same terminology over and over again and has introduced a manual, available on the App iRef Accademy Library, where you can find all the official terms and abbreviations. The referee of the third millennium, at whatever latitude he is at, must start “thinking” in English, the original language of the regulations, more immediate and direct and above all as far as “world” basketball is concerned, we at WeRef will continue to publish in Italian and Spanish even if sometimes the nuances of Neolatine languages require more attention to avoid confusion.

The changes for 2020 have been divided into two types of change:

• 4 Major changes , two of which with language adjustment in line with the philosophy just illustrated.
  • Art 15 /Player in the act of shooting (AOS): different definition for shooting and for continuous movement – note that we are talking about movement – not motion
  • Art 33 / Cylinder: defines the offensive player cylinder with or without the ball. The rule focuses on legal and illegal actions by the offense and defense in respect to their and their opponent’s cylinders. The definition of defensive cylinder has not changed.
  • Art 37 / Unsportsmanlike Foul (UF): the “Open Path” (UF – C4) is clarified, eliminating any reference to defensive and offensive players. Criteria is changed to require a player to be progressing towards the opponent’s basket.
  • Art 35 / Double Foul (DOF): it simplifies the definition of double foul, to sanction a DF it is required that both fouls are of the same category (PF – UF* – DF *: *in the case of a UF and a DF will still be considered a double foul).
• 4 Minor changes
  • Art 5/19/44 Players: Injury/Substitutions/Special Situations: clarifying when a player who receive an assistance is treated as an injured player
  • Appx B / The Scoresheet: clarify how in a Fight (Art 39) the measures against the actively participating coach must be registered: after his expulsion, only one D2 must be registered.
  • Art 49 / change of the duties of the scorekeeper and the timekeeper in relation to modern equipment tools (Substitution, individual and team penalty markers, sound signals)
  • Appx F / Instant Replay System (IRS): everything concerning IRS contained in Art 46 has been transferred to the new Appendix F – only for championships where the IRS protocol is to be applied (some Federations and/or alloys have an integrated or different IRS protocol).

If you will be patient enough to follow us, we will try to propose, on the basis of what FIBA has said, two topics (1 Major & 1 Minor) for each post, hoping that the posts are not too long and heavy. At the beginning of the posts we will use the complete terminology with the addition of the abbreviations, in the following we will use only the abbreviations, we all try together to add new contents to the cup without overflowing the knowledge. Work in progress! 🏀

34blue receives out of the arc, 21white is trailing but clearly in late. While 34blue shoots, the defensive player jumps uncoordinated in an attempt to prevent the shot. 21white crosses, airborne, a space absolutely free from opponents, but before landing he impacts 34blue right leg definitely out of the shooter’s cylinder. Both players fallen on the floor. The centre and trail refs call a foul indicated as an offensive foul, the ball doesn’t enter the basket.

At the end of the last century some players had developed a particular ability to hook, with one arm, an opponent and after pulling it towards them they dropped themselves to “steal” a foul from the referee distracted! We found ourselves, without realizing it, in front of the precursors of the fake. In the first decade of the third millennium, the evolution of the game led defenders to look for new ways to gain an advantage in a situation that often saw them at a disadvantage: frequently in situations of contact on the move between attack and defense, the last were often penalized by a call for a foul. Once they realized that taking a contact, even a light one, on the chest the call could be reversed, the defenders started to let themselves fall, refining more and more the “dive” backwards and managing to collect fouls in favor and stealing balls! Even if, not very quickly, the referee adapted to what was proposed and constantly filled the gap between wrong and correct readings, managing to propose a continuous growth in the quality of the readings over time. With the movement of the game from inside: in the three-second area; to perimeter: outside the two-point arc; the defender’s flopping has decreased substantially. The proliferation of the three-point shot has created new situations of contact between shooter and defender, complicated to read and referee, especially when both players are airborne and their legs touch each other. Many offensive have realized that extending or spreading a leg, can fool even the most experienced referee if he is not careful and focused on the whole play.

There are substantial differences in the evaluation of the contacts between players in progressing or airborne, although before hovering in the air the players definitely have a position on the ground and a direction of movement that after the jump from the ground can be developed in the air to another spot on the court. The principles of legal guard position, cylinder and verticality remain valid, but also must be added that once the jump has been made each player has the right to land in a spot that at the time of the jump was not occupied by other players. Of course, when the trajectories meet (or collide) the referees must determine who moved first in one direction and who is responsible for the contact.

In the clip it is evident that the 21white, even if lately, occupies a free space, also in its flight path. While the 34blue goes out of balance in an uncoordinated shot and spreading the right leg he creates a contact with the legs of the 21white, causing him to fall on the floor. 34blu is responsible for the contact and the damage caused to the opponent absolutely requires a call from the referees. At the moment of contact 34blu has already released the shot and although he is still a shooting player, his team is no longer in control ball: therefore his foul cannot be an offensive foul. If the shot enters the basket this would have to be awarded!

If sanctioned erroneously, as offensive, the 34blue foul would have as penalty a throw-in for the white team and if scored the consequent basket would have to be cancelled. However as often and willingly happens, if the foul, initially sanctioned as an offensive, is reclassified as a foul by a player of the team not in control ball and then sanctioned with a throw-in or with two free throws if the team has exhausted the penalties for fouls in the quarter. In our opinion these contacts deserve a more in-depth reading, both the dynamics of the contact and the way in which they occur. If extending the leg can be part of the player’s shooting balance or player’s individual show, knowing that an impact can create damage and possibly injury to an opponent must be part of each player’s knowledge. If then the movement is also made to get a foul call to your advantage, this action can be easily configured in unsportsmanlike foul situations: obviously if and only if there is contact between the players.

We are sure that a more consistent reading of these contacts and a more restrictive classification of the contact in the criteria of unsportsmanlike fouls, it would radically reduce their use and sometimes abuse by the shooters. We remind you that an attempt to search for a foul without contact should be sanctioned with a warning or in extremely blatant cases directly with a technical foul.