During back court pressure by a defensive player, any hand contact with the dribbler is illegal. Referee no needs to warn. It is a FOUL.

At front court, if a dribbler is not going to the basket ( "coast-to-coast" ), a defender, in order to "find" the dribbler, may briefly place a hand on him, but the hand must not remain on any part of the dribbler.




A hand that remains on the dribbler or influences the direction of a dribbler anywhere on the court is illegal. Referee no needs to warn. It is a FOUL.

    Sandra Mirsov -     ebastats - the Basketball statistics forum

This post RESUMES  the topic

About the Concept: Hand checking= Any hand contact with the dribbler, in order to "find" him.

About the Rule:
a. Backcourt
During back court pressure by a defensive player, any hand contact with the dribbler is illegal. No warning. It is a personal FOUL.

b. Front court
At front court, if a dribbler is not going to the basket ( "coast-to-coast" ), a defender, in order to "find" the dribbler, may briefly place a hand on him, but the hand must not remain on any part of the dribbler.

A hand that remains on the dribbler or influences the direction of a dribbler anywhere on the court is illegal. No warning. It is a personal FOUL.

It is also be noted that "bumping" or dislodging on dribblers and offensive players without the ball who are moving to new positions on the floor will be penalized.

Commentaries: Hand checking and any other contact are covered by the rules with differences between the leagues - see below -. but the issue is the application of the rule. Not only vary from league to league, it can vary from game to game. This is why the people who make the rules issue interpretation bulletins, publish casebooks (play situations with rulings) and produce videotapes. These clarify various play situations and help officials decide if an advantage has been gained, which is the principal reason for calling a foul.

About Hand checking Rule Differences at different Leagues:
NCAA: Not allowed to hand check nor putting the forearm on the dribbler for a second. Use of forearm alone is often a foul
NBA: It is a different matter if the player is protecting himself from a player who is backing in to his already established legal space.
There is a codified post play between the refs: if you put two hands on the back of a post player, or a forearm and one hand, or both forearms, it is a foul.  A forearm alone on a player backing in, ostensibly in order to protect the position you already have, is generally OK.
FIBA: The rule application varies a bit by where you are in the world.

Quotes: The rules are so heavily in favor of the offensive players, that the officials would have to start making those reciprocal calls just to give the defense a chance. The biggest question mark is, what are the defenders going to do with the power guys like Shak, Barkley and Malone, who make or made a living backing their way to the basket ? It must be possible to be able to play some kind of reasonable defense on those guys.
Basketball is ultimately a game of skill, timing and position, and as a defender, if you have a position and refs are going to allow the offensive player to just run over you, then you have an inherent sense of unfairness about the game.

This summary resumes this topic and will be completed at the "Rules" chapter of the eBA Basketball Statistics Analysis System.  Another Basketball rules topics you'll find at the Basketball Rules Discussions section of our eBA Stats.com site.

   Mario Sebastiani  -  eBA Stats Team - Basketball Statistics Analysis