Orlando beat Cleveland. In that game, Noah Penda rose near the rim and dunked. Coming down, he was still hanging on the rim. The ball hadn’t finished going through the net. It bounced off his head, went back up, then dropped through the hoop again.
The referees called “basket interference”. Two points off.
I read the explanation on Basket USA, my folder open on the kitchen table. Rule 11 of the NBA rulebook. It covers, among other things, a player who touches the ball in the cylinder above the rim, or stops it from going all the way through the net. The report is clear: he had no intention of interfering with his own dunk. The contact was accidental. It was penalised anyway.
I’m not commenting. The referee blows the whistle, I note it down. But I will observe one thing. At our place, a basket has three stages: the ball goes in, the referee raises his arms, I write it down. Over there, there is a fourth stage: the ball has to come out of the bottom. I had never thought to check that. I’ll check on Saturday at half past eight, just in case.
For the rest of the sheet, nothing to strike out. Five points, four rebounds, three assists, one steal, one block, in fourteen minutes. It’s on the sheet. He starts his second season in Orlando. The column has time.
Penda, two points, rule 11: struck out in red, no crossing out on the rest.
It’s true, we checked: Basket USA.
