Why a Knicks Bench Player Has His Own NBA Rule

Madison Square Garden, January 15, 1990. Knicks-Bulls, tied 106 with one-tenth of a second on the clock and the Knicks inbounding from the sideline. Everyone in the building expected an alley-oop to Patrick Ewing — that was the only play that fit inside a tenth of a second.

The Bulls covered Ewing. Mark Jackson, inbounding, found Trent Tucker open instead. Tucker caught the ball in the air, turned his shoulders, came down, and shot a three. It went in. Knicks 109, Bulls 106.

Replays showed the clock didn't start until the ball was already on its way down toward the rim. Phil Jackson, in his first year as Chicago's head coach, filed a formal protest with the league office. The NBA disallowed the protest — the officials on the floor had ruled it a good basket and that was that — but kept reviewing the tape.

What the tape showed was a physics problem. A catch-and-shoot needs roughly four-tenths of a second of real time, even from a player who is already turning when the ball arrives. The clock had said 0.1. Something was wrong with the rulebook, not the shot.

For the 1990-91 season, the league wrote a new rule: with under 0.3 seconds remaining, an inbounded ball cannot be shot, only tipped. FIBA adopted the same threshold in 2010. The win still counts in the Knicks' record. Tucker, a career role player with a 41 percent three-point shot, has the rule.