Expert: Bret Temple - 6/15/2007

Question
two players were going for a ball, one girl gets the ball as she falls down on her back with her feet in the air.  she throws the ball to her teammate without trying to get up and her feet never touch the ground. Is this travelling?

Answer
Hi Barbara,

A lot of violation calls by the official are made by their interpretation of what happened at that exact moment, meaning there are no wrong calls made.  What some officials may interpret as traveling, others may not. In your situation if i was officiating, I probably would have called traveling based on your description. High School rules which normally include youth leagues as well, states that a player with the ball that is not dribbling and falls down with the ball in hand should be called for Traveling. Whether she passed the ball to a teammate or not is moot. The violation already took place, unless she passed the ball simultaneously as she was falling to the ground.  I have watched many professional basketball games in which players have fallen down with the ball and traveling was not called. I'm not sure if Professional Basketball rules differ in that area, or the officials just simply don't call it.  It also depends on whether or not she actually had posesion of the ball long enough considering two girls were going for the ball. I hope that helps, please let me know if you need anymore clarification.

Thanks!!