Airborn?

I need some help from the referee pool on this blog. Can someone tell me where to find the rule that states a defender must take his spot before a player jumps toward the hoop? T and F? Help!

Rule 4 section 23 article 4B: If the opponent with the ball is airborne, the guard must have obtained legal position before the opponent left the floor.

Initial legal guarding position is A) having both feet touch the playing court and B) The front of the torso must be facing the opponent.

what about the strait line part? Isnt there something about the player being in a strait line or something as well?

Nothing in the rule book about a straight line. There is a item in the rule book about the defender moving obliquely or laterally to maintain legal guarding position on the offensive person, provided it's not towards the opponent when contact occurs. This helps out the defender when the offensive person lowers the shoulder or pushes off on the defender when they are moving together on the court, especially during the dribbling part of the game.

So once a player jumps you must get out of the way? Principals of verticality are no longer enforced? So any contact in the air with a defender that is jumping is a foul even if the defender is in his space and the offensive guy needs that spot to land?

Principles of verticality are enforced as long as legal guarding position has been established before the shooter goes airborne.

So anytime you see a collision coming you should jump and land on someone lol

Rule 4 Section 23 Article 3D: After the initial legal guarding position is obtained: The defender may raise his/her hands or jump within his/her own vertical plane.

For your big collision scenario the defender can draw upon 4-23-3E to cushion the blow:

After the legal guarding position is obtained the defender may turn or duck to absorb the shock of imminent contact.

traveling... when you catch the ball and have one foot down, can you jump off that foot and land with both feet? Then shoot a jump shot?

This has been fun talking about legal guarding position, airborne shooters and shocks of imminent contact (I love the wording of this), but now I have to refer to one of my rules:

When very tired one must obtain legal sleeping position. Legal sleeping position is obtained by shutting down the computer walking upstairs and doing a floating free fall into a pillow top mattress.

Traveling? I am traveling to my bedroom right now.

Good night my associate from Milford.

You guys need help...lol...feels like we've been down this road before...

A charge is F@^%&*#% impossible to get right every time...so its really not worth trying. And every ref has a different judgement of the call, especially based on their angle. So in most cases - throw the rulebook out on this one I think...

Nothing is impossible!