[M&M Guy]

Time for me to stick in my .02 (.03 Canadian). I agree with with JRut - I have never seen an official blow the whistle to start a free throw. I believe the purpose of the whistle is a warning to let all the players know that action is about to start on a throw-in after a time out. In the case of a free throw, the only "action" is the one player taking a shot with all other players just watching, so there's no need for a warning as such. Now the exception, as I'm thinking about it, would be the situation where a team is late coming out of the huddle before a free throw. The official should sound the whistle before starting the resumption of play proceedure. But not before just bouncing the ball for a standard free throw.