If you get to the point in the game when your team is behind and you must stop the clock and hope they miss free throws, be sure you foul intelligently. The difference between a two-shot foul or a one-and-one and two shots and the ball is obvious and enormous. For this reason, you must make sure that your intentional foul looks unintentional. You can do that by thinking steal and by going for the steal aggressively, knowing that if you can’t get the ball cleanly, you are willing to chop the arm off at the elbow to be sure you make contact.

Go for the steal, not for the foul, but know that you are going for it very aggressively so that you either get the ball or the whistle blows. Do go for the ball. By going for the ball, it will certainly look as though you are going for the steal (because you are). If your intent is merely to foul, very often it may look just like that, like you are trying to foul… two shots and the ball!

Gofortheball.Whoknows?Youmayevensurpriseyourselfsomeday by getting it without fouling and winning the game. The important thing is to go for the ball. If an elbow or wrist gets grabbed in the process, so be it.

From Dick’s book Stuff