During the fourth quarter of the Bulls’ loss to the Raptors on Friday, Nate Robinson found himself in a jump ball situation against Rudy Gay. Given the fact that Gay is listed at 6'8" and Robinson is listed at 5'9,” Nate realized that he probably wasn’t going to win the tap, so he came up with an alternate strategy to try to gain possession.
Although what Robinson decided to do was hilarious, it was in violation of at least two NBA rules.
Once the ball was thrown up, Robinson took off to where Gay was planning to tip the ball, and actually intercepted it and fired a jumper before the referee blew the whistle.
The rulebook states that the two players involved in the jump ball may not leave their half of the circle until the ball is tapped, and also makes it clear that one of the eight non-jumpers (or the floor) must touch the ball after it’s tapped before one of the jumpers can catch it.
[via Yahoo!'s Ball Don’t Lie]
