Quote:
Originally Posted by Raymond
What rules justification do you have to deny the time out in one situation and grant it in the other? You gave a lecture about whistles making the ball dead in the shooting situation then say you ignore that principle in the OOB situation.
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Absolutely none, although the "release" situation would seldom happen to me because we "double verify" here in my area, and have been for twenty years.
I don't grant timeouts while a try is airborne. In this thread I was answering ("lecturing") for officials who might, as for an answer on a written exam. After research, I was actually surprised to discover that "granting a timeout" was not listed as one ways that the ball becomes dead, and that it's the whistle, not the granting, that makes the ball dead. I really did not expect to discover that.
There are dead balls that occur before a whistle is sounded, but a time out being granted (surprisingly to me) is not one of them.
If I were to ever grant during a released try in a real game, I would be wrong and I would have to deal with it like any other mistake. I have yet to work a perfect game.
I do grant timeouts to players flying out of bounds. No rule basis. No casebook basis. In thirty-eight years of officiating, working games, and observing an equal number of games, I have yet to see a single official deny such a request. Players, fans, coaches, my assigner, evaluators, and partners, all expect me to grant that request.
I don't sound my whistle when a free throw shooter has the ball for eleven seconds either. No rule basis. No casebook basis. I just don't because that's not the way we do things around here. And please don't ask me at what point I would sound my whistle, I have never reached that elusive number, not yet, but I know that if I ever get that far, I will sound my whistle using purpose and intent.
My assigner, my evaluators, and my partners, expect me to do things in certain ways. Sometimes 100% by the book, sometimes not quite by the book. Don't ask for a written list, there's not one, it's part of our culture and is learned through observation and experience.
Coaches, players, and fans in my area have also come to expect officials to do things in certain ways. Sometimes 100% by the book, sometimes not quite by the book, it's part of our basketball culture here in my local area.
As a young varsity official, I once called a punched ball violation when no other player was anywhere near the puncher. 100% by the book. Before the end of the tournament, my partner, and the more experienced guys who followed us, made it very known to me that I shouldn't do that again, and I haven't.
I don't believe that one can officiate well by going by the book 100%. I also don't think that one can officiate well not knowing the written rules and interpretations.
In medio stat virtus (Horace).