Blocking three pointers in basketball

bake_betty

In basketball, why don't players block three pointers by putting their hand above the hoop and pushing it away? Many players are close to 7 feet and can easily reach the hoop, so why doesn't a player just stand near the hoop and push away three pointers?

Originally asked by Rahul on Stack Exchange (sports) (CC BY-SA 3.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

This is called goaltending and is prohibited. In basketball, if you block a shot after it's started descending, it is ruled to be goaltending and the basket is counted automatically . There are several other circumstance s in which goal tending is called as well, but they are out of scope for this question.

Full answer by wax eagle: https://sports.stackexchange.com/a/5547 (CC BY-SA 3.0).

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