An Intentional Foul is a personal or technical foul which, may or may not be designed or premeditated. It is not based upon the severity of the act.

Intentional foul contact may be very slight or may be a hard foul.

An intentional foul involves contact which neutralizes an opponent’s obvious advantageous position.
An intentional foul is contact away from the ball or when not making a legitimate attempt to play the ball or player.

Lightly/slightly holding or pushing an opponent in full view of an official in order to stop play, with the hope of gaining control of the ball as the result of missed free throws, etc., or pushing a player in the back to prevent a score, when there is no possibility of getting into position to efend, is an intentional foul.

In throw-in situations, fouling a player who is not involved in the play in any way must be deemed intentional.

An intentional foul shall be ruled if while playing the ball or player, a player causes excessive contact with the opponent.

An intentional foul is contact specifically designed to stop the clock or to keep the clock from starting.

During a player “going for the ball” situation, an intentional foul should be ruled if “going for the ball” is not done properly (chance to legitimately play the ball).

Acts that must be ruled intentional fouls are: grabbing a player and/or his/her jersey;
pushing or holding a player from behind as he/she attempts to advance/break away;
wrapping arms around a player; fouling a player away form the ball by grabbing, holding or intentionally impeding progress; fouling a player, during an attempted try, in a manner which is excessive so that the try will not be successful; grabbing a player from behind before he/she gets in the act of shooting when an apparent easy goal may be scored.
These examples are acts that are intentional and must be ruled accordingly.

An intentional foul always carries a penalty of two free throws and the awarding of the
ball for a throw-in at the spot nearest to where the foul occurred.

If the ball is dead, a contact foul is ruled an Intentional Technical foul.

If the contact meets the criteria of an intentional foul, rule it an intentional foul. Far too often intentional fouls are not ruled intentional fouls. When an official refuses to rule an intentional foul, he/she is giving an advantage to one team and placing the other team at a disadvantage. Doing so affects the outcome of the game.

It is obvious that late in the game officials are reluctant to rule intentional fouls. A team is obviously committing fouls to stop the clock and force the opponent to make the free throws to maintain the lead. By being reluctant to rule intentional fouls an official is affecting fair play. To limit one team to attempting free throws and not have the basic opportunity to pass, catch, dribble, try for goal, move, run, etc., due to not enforcing a rule (not penalizing intentional fouls) an official is affecting the game,