What was hand checking in the nba

How frequent or infrequent the whistles are is a story for another day. All basketball levels have cracked down on hand checking, and it seems like college basketball is no different. It states :. To curtail hand-checking, officials must address it at the beginning of the game, and related personal fouls must be called consistently throughout the game.

Some guidelines for officials to use when officiating hand-checking:. When a defensive player keeps a hand or forearm on an opponent, it is a personal foul. When a defensive player puts two hands on an opponent, it is a personal foul. When a defensive player continually jabs by extending his arm s and placing a hand or forearm on the opponent, it is a personal foul. When a defensive player uses an arm bar to impede the progress of a dribbler, it is a personal foul.

Like many reforms, it was met with mixed emotions, but ultimately, long-time Big 12 conference official Curtis Shaw said putting a forearm on an opponent is not the way to play defense. Before touching why the hand check was banned in the NBA, it is important to note that in the mids to early s, the league was full of good defensive teams.

Because of this, teams often try to slow the pace down, dump the ball inside, and then come back the other way and defend. Guards rarely venture in the paint, and if someone scores down there, they will feel the contact. As tenacious as that style of play was, the NBA ultimately decided low-scoring, grind-it-out games do not translate to revenue.

They want more fast-paced and free-flowing games,. Among these rules was the scrapping of illegal defense, more vigorous implementation of the three-second rule, and the shift from 10 seconds to eight seconds before getting a backcourt violation call.

Because zone defenses are not allowed, it forced players to embrace the team concept and not rely on isolation plays to bail them out. As mentioned, the banning of hand checking fits into the mold of what the NBA wants the games to be— more movement and more offense.

Not only that, but it also forced players to work on every skill, especially shooting, to space the floor and keep defenses honest. Of course, the changes were not immediately seen, but from what we see today, the points per game average of the league is the highest it has been since The average offensive rating was also the highest since the statistic was recorded first in Hand checks are going to be counted as a personal foul.

The last representatives of the old guard of centers were on their way out and the league was primed for a takeover by a new crop of dominant perimeter players. This would turn out to be a very difficult task and players like these would thrill the fans on a nightly basis. Even it if did take a few more seasons for the speed of the game measured by pace — the average number of possessions per game to go up, this new brand of basketball was much more attractive and exciting to watch and there was a lot more scoring going on.

The wide-spread implementation of analytics in basketball was the final evolutionary step towards the full adoption of the perimeter game which became so prevalent that the center position was starting to become nearly useless beyond rim protection.

Had that trend continued, a case albeit a weak one could have been made for bringing hand-checking back in some form. Fortunately, the big men of the NBA also evolved to become far more complete players than any of their predecessors. These developments have brought us to what is arguably the fastest and most exciting era of NBA basketball in history. Hand-checking is now rightfully seen as a relic of the past and even the most bitter nostalgic will probably have to admit that the past is exactly where the hand-checking rule belongs.

If you are defending off the ball you have some leeway on how you want to contain your match-up. And is marked as a personal foul and counts towards the team foul count. The rule is only called on a defender when making the action on the ball-handler. Contact initiated by the defensive player guarding a player with the ball is not legal.

This contact includes, but is not limited to, forearm, hands, or body check. Basically a defender cannot use their hands to initiate contact.

There are exceptions to the rule, however. You can read them directly in the link above as they follow the rule stated above. Sometimes, a defender can use their forearm when the ball-handler has their back to the basket, under the free-throw line. A hand-checking foul will give the opposing defender a single foul and will result in a dead ball followed by an inbound pass for the offense. If the team is in the bonus , a hand-checking foul could also lead to free throws.

Most referees will not call hand-checking if the defender uses his hands one time; hand-checking fouls are generally called when a single defensive player is continuously making contact with their hands throughout the game.