NEW YORK — The NBA released updated guidance Thursday defining “marginal contact” as whatever occurred on the possession a fan is currently most angry about.
“We wanted language people could actually use,” said a league spokesperson. “If your team did it, the contact was marginal. If it happened to your team, it was obviously a foul.”
The new standard replaces several pages of technical criteria with a simpler framework based on rooting interest, score, quarter, and whether the replay is being watched in slow motion.
Officials said the definition should improve public understanding by aligning the rulebook with how basketball arguments already function online.
Examples include hand contact that becomes severe when attached to a missed shot, torso contact that disappears after a made basket, and any collision occurring during the final 30 seconds of a close game.
The league acknowledged that two opposing fanbases may reach different conclusions from the same play and confirmed that both can remain completely certain.
The guidance takes effect immediately and has already failed to settle anything.
