NEW YORK — The NBA has expanded the permissible scope of coach’s challenge reviews on some out-of-bounds plays, saying Tuesday that if a foul should have been called on the play it now can be assessed shortly after the fact.
The league’s Board of Governors approved the move at its meeting in New York, after it was unanimously recommended by the league’s competition committee last week. NBA commissioner Adam Silver was scheduled to speak about the meeting later Tuesday. The change will take effect this season.
The review change could have come into play at least once in last season’s playoffs, when Dallas’ Kyrie Irving fouled Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels and the ball went out of bounds. No foul was called on the play, and even though the review clearly showed Irving hitting McDaniels’ arm, the ball was awarded to Dallas because it went out off of McDaniels.
When such out-of-bounds plays have reviews triggered by coaches’ challenges, on-court officials and the NBA Replay Center now “will be able to review the video to determine whether a foul proximate to the violation should have been called,” the league said, providing that certain criteria are met.
Those criteria: whether the players involved in the uncalled foul are the same or different players than the ones involved in the out-of-bounds violation under review and how much time has elapsed between the uncalled foul and the violation.