Basketball Rules: Block/Charge Call - Video Transcript
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Official Bill Sacco: The block/charge call, in a game, sometimes is the most difficult call for officials to make. A rule of thumb that we use, again, we referee the defense. Did the defensive player establish a legal guarding position – both feet on the ground, facing his opponent?
Once we see that, the defender is then still allowed to move. People in the stands will yell, “Well, he was moving, he was moving!” He can move, he can move with the offensive player, maintain his position. If he gets run over, the foul, 99-point-99 percent of the time, is going to be on the offensive player.
We try to use the torso – the upper part of the body – as a guide in terms of how hard he was hit. So, first and foremost, we look at the defensive player's position – two feet on the ground, facing his opponent. OK? If he gets run over, the foul is going to be by the offensive player.
Sometimes, the hardest ones are on a dribbler, because if the dribbler gets – if I've established my legal guarding position and now I start to move – and the dribbler gets his head and shoulders past the defensive player, and there's contact, now it's going to be a block against the defensive player.
It's a tough call, and I think what coaches expect from officials, is that we make it right away – either a block, or a player control foul. We don't want to keep anybody guessing. Parents, we know that you're going to react, because if it's your son that committed the foul or your daughter that committed the foul, you're going to be upset. We only get one chance at any play on the court, and a block/charge is the most difficult one for us to make. As long as we make a call, that's all you can ask for.
There's an expression that we're only 50-percent right half the time. Well, that's absolutely true in officiating. Somebody's not going to be happy with a call that we make on every single play.
Again, react, be done with it, let it go. It's not going to change anything, you're not going to change anything by overreacting in the stands, yelling and screaming. The call is made, we did the best we could, and that's the end of it.


