Calling: Palming The Ball

In todays game palming the ball has become part of the game. The players call it dribbling. But, it is not. It's carrying the ball. Westbrook carrys this to extremes and he doesn't seem to be able to to stop violating this rule. It must have been called on the Gophers 4 or 5 times. The fact that this crew of officials made these calls put our guys completely off their game. Westbrook had to be sat down. They all do it. Everyone does it.

However, this violation is rarely called. There has to be some consistancy among the officials. The rest of the basketball world is not going to start making this call because this crew decides to revert to the way the game was played in the 50's and 60's.

I hate it when players carry the ball. But, I'm an old guy and I've come to accept the new game. Maybe this crew of officials should do the same thing.

As I've understood it, palming (or carrying) the ball will typically only be called when the official believes the offensive player gets an unfair advantage or if the official believes the player is consistently dribbling in this fashion. I'm wondering if some of those who call games and/or who are actively coaching can confirm or clarify this.

One of the times Westbrook did it today he trapped the ball against his body for a second. It had to be called. If he could dribble better, it wouldn't happen.

But yes, this crew definitley decided they were goign to call it more than any other. And that is a problem in consistency.

It bothered me that yesterday's crew seemed to focus on minor infractions (palming, sliding pivot, etc.) while missing a lot of the physical contact fouls.