[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Raymond

You said the 6th player showed up only during dead balls (multiple times according your post), which means he walked onto the court at some point. Why are players walking on and off the court and you're not noticing? At some point you need to start officiating and quit letting this stuff happen.

In my hypothetical situation nobody knew when extra player "showed up" (walked onto the court). The extra player was discovered during a dead ball.

It was a hypothetical situation. It didn't happen to me. Probably will never happen to anybody. It was posted to show an extreme example of an extra player discovered during a dead ball and whether, or not, the team should be penalized with a technical foul. I know for sure that we can't penalize an individual player for not reporting and/or not being beckoned because all substitutes reported to the scorer, and all were beckoned by an official. Also, we don't know who the extra player was.

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Multiple substitutions. All substitutes report and are legally beckoned. Extra team member is confused and stays on court, unnoticed by everybody. Ball put into play. Quick foul occurs. No substitutions. One and one free throws awarded. First free throw made. No substitutions. Extra team member discovered by officials (who don't know when the extra team member entered) during dead ball, clock stopped, after first free throw made while the ball is in the hands of the lead official.

Officiate basketball long enough (thirty-six years for me) and you'll eventually find yourself with six players on the court no matter how good your mechanics are, and no matter how frequently you check incoming and outgoing substitutes, and count players after intermissions and/or timeouts. When it happens you have to know how to properly penalize it, not just make up stuff as you go along.