If I guy is at the free throw line to shoot free throws and loses posession of the basketball is that a turnover? or what? How would it be handled? Any other oddball situations you can think of?
First, it would depend on whether he was shooting the first or last free throw. If he was shooting the first and just fumbled the ball away, the refs might consider the fumbling a "shot" and simply give it back to him to shoot the last free throw. If it was the last, the refs might again consider the fumbling a "shot," but now all players would be allowed to try and gain possession of the ball. Then again, if it was the last free throw, the ref might award the ball to the opposing team if he though the fumbling was really a badly-disguised pass. Of course, I am making all of this up.
If you are in-bounding from the sideline and fumble the ball away, you are not allowed to move your feet (to recover the ball even, right?). What would happen then? Certainly if it fell in-bounds, the ball would be in playl but if it remained out-of-bounds would that be a turnover (for "in-bounding" out-of-bounds}?
I think, considering that the refs pass the ball to the players in both of these hypothetical situations, if the ball is fumbled, then then the ref will just go over there, pick up the ball, and hand it back to them. Although in the out of bound one, if they already had posession of it out of bounds, I imagine they'd break the five second rule before anything else.
No. On the last shot of two free throws, the ball must hit the rim. If it doesn't, the ball is awarded on the side to the non-free throw shooting team. This is to prevent a shooter from throwing the ball hard off the backboard to get a good rebound towards him.
Yeah, something definitive. How about some of the other possibilities brought up... the X-files of turnovers.
