[Back In The Saddle]

Originally Posted by ChuckElias

The player is still eligible to become a player. He would be allowed in the book. You keep using the phrase "ready to play", but that's not in the rule. The rule says "eligible to become a player". It doesn't matter if he's ready. It only matters if he's dressed and eligible to become a player.

Then all that really matters is if he/she is dressed.

"Eligible to become a player" speaks to the future and in a non-deterministic way. Said person might become (in the future) a player when he takes the floor for the opening tip-off. Said person might become (in the future) a player some time during the third quarter when he/she finally gets to the gym. But even more than that, it doesn't require the team member to actually become a player, ever. Merely that he/she is eligible to become a player.

If, for purposes of this rule, eligible isn't about grades, suspensions, fights, etc., then what does it mean to be eligible? The best as I can come up with is that eligible, in this context, merely means that the coach has given assent to put that person's name on the line up.

The opposite case, of course, is that a person the coach wants to become a player, but whose name was not included in the line up, must be added to the line up at the cost of a technical foul. Once the person's name is added, he/she is eligible to become a player.

Name on line up = eligible to become a player

So that leaves just the dressed issue. How you are to determine that without inspecting uniforms, I don't know. There is no provision in basketball rules for a formal equipment inspection. So I guess you have no better option than to assume the player is legally attired an equiped, as the coach will attest to, until such time as you observe that he/she is not.