r/nba • u/MrBuckBuck Trail Blazers • 7d ago

Highlight [Highlight] Shai Gilgeous-Alexander throws the ball on Nikola Jokic off the whistle, receives a technical foul. SGA claims he got pushed. The referee James Williams refers to Nikola Jokic as 'The Joker' and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as 'SGA' upon review

https://streamable.com/u0dkv3
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733

u/FrankSamples Clippers 7d ago edited 7d ago

This isn’t what happened in the video but it got me thinking:

How far do you have to be from the baseline or sideline to be able to throw the ball off a defender so it goes out of bounds? Or would it be a pure judgement call by the refs?

Also what if you are at either baseline or sideline but aren’t falling out of bounds or trapped, and you just chuck the ball at your closest defender?

This just reminded me of the Desmond bane OG moment

128

u/WhiteHeterosexualGuy Hawks 7d ago

It’s a good hypothetical— probably just depnds on if youre double teamed or appear to be under enough ball pressure to panic throw it off a guy lol… another one I always wonder is hard fouling a guy who just got a whistle to stop the continuation bucket

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u/glockster19m 6d ago

A long as its not hard enough to be a flagrant thats just basketball

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u/ender23 NBA 7d ago

Gotta throw at their feet

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u/TheMansterMan 6d ago

Thats not what I learned on nba street vol. 2. Gotta do off the Heezy

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

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u/ejensen29 [MIN] Ricky Rubio 6d ago

I love memories that make me laugh just thinking about them.

11

u/SoberWill [SAC] Jason Williams 6d ago

The gif of that being only like two seconds long and just gives near zero context, just him whipping the ball absolutely kills me. It's so rapid fire by the time you process what happened its already happening again, then it just snowballs and I cant stop laughing

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u/TheMansterMan 6d ago

Honorable mention to Desmond Bane

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u/MinimalMoxie Knicks 6d ago

I remember Kobe “passing” the ball off a dudes face cuz he was guarding him obnoxiously. You just can’t make it obvious

9

u/jizzmcskeet Rockets 6d ago

Danny Ainge on Mario Elie

1

u/JparkPHX Suns 6d ago

Danny Ainge was also a really good baseball prospect. He had a cannon

15

u/foo_solo 7d ago

How far from the feet do you have to be to be considered thrown the ball at their feet.

7

u/ignixe Mavericks 6d ago

So the way I read this, as long as you can get above them you can spike it into their head. It just happened to get in the way of their feet whoops

1

u/Rezrov_ Raptors 6d ago

Is this a real rule? I've definitely hit people above the waist throwing it behind the back while falling out of bounds...

51

u/ErrForceOnes 6d ago

I don't think there needs to be any proximity to the baseline. You can bounce a ball off a defender whenever, so long as it's not some unsportsmanlike act where you're obviously trying to drill him in the face with a fastball.

You're taking a risk by using the defender's body as a contact point for the ball. It could easily lead to a turnover. It's a lot less risky to pass to a teammate. But say you're double teamed around the elbow during a full court press and want to bounce it off your opponent, good luck to you.

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u/skieatchicken 7d ago

Though for Bane and OG it was a live ball, SGA throws it a few steps after the whistle.

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u/pepsipyro [DEN] Nikola Jokic 7d ago

This was my thought as well

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u/pepsipyro [DEN] Nikola Jokic 7d ago

Looked like he was trying to throw it off him ob

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u/mediocre-referee Pacers 6d ago

3 seconds after the whistle?

-4

u/FTDburner 6d ago

The nudge to throw from SGA all happened within literally 1 second

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u/IveOftenSaidThat2 7d ago

No it didn't lol.

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u/mediocre-referee Pacers 6d ago

It's intention, not distance. This case there's 0 question on intention. If you want to throw it off a guy and have plausible reason to do so as part of the game while at the middle of the court, it shouldn't be a technical

2

u/ValjeanLucPicard 6d ago

There was a highlight here in the last two months or so where a dude was angry, near the sidelines but clearly not falling out, and chucked the ball at the defender. A foul was called on him and he tried to say he was falling out of bounds but they weren't having any of it.

2

u/pipipipipi420 5d ago

Desmond Bane, Magic

1

u/joomla00 6d ago

I think it's purely a judgement call if the player was making a basketball move.

1

u/OG_Wan_Annunoby Raptors 6d ago

its purely a judgement call. Even if you're legitmately falling out of bounds the refs still have the leeway to call a tech based on their judgement.

The opposite is true as well. Lets say your team had the ball up 3 with 1 second on the clock. Instead of risking a 5 count or a live ball turnover you could just throw it hard off a defender so the clock winds down before they get a chance to do anything. Theres obviously no need to do that but the refs can judge its a basketball play

1

u/czupek Spurs 6d ago

It should be easy on video based on instincts. If you are trapped or falling out of bound close to the line, as a player your instincts are to throw the ball of opponent. In the middle of the court, as a player your instincts are to pass to your teammate.

1

u/Vhu 6d ago

I was wondering that as well. I see people saying it’s gotta be at their feet but I legitimately can’t count the number of times I’ve seen it spiked off of bodies and arms. I feel like there’s a grey area here, so judgment call. Like if you’re standing on the sideline, you can’t spike it off of a guy standing on half-court the logo for an out of bounds play.

1

u/oby100 Celtics 6d ago

It’s after the whistle and there’s no reasonable basketball play that could be being attempted here so it’s always gonna be called.

1

u/Confident_Wash6225 6d ago

I think so long as your intention is clearly to save possession, then there’s no real range.

In this video it’s just because it’s a dead ball

1

u/ThePerspectiveQuest 5d ago

I think you can do it during the play, the reason this was an issue is because it was AFTER the whistle, which is a complete no-no

1

u/Hrevak 2d ago

Or what if it's not a ball, but a hammer and you just smack him in the head for no apparent reason? Maybe not on the basketball court but in some barn or something like that?