quote:
Originally posted by TGR on 03-16-2000 12:36 PM
This is an excellent example of officials communicating with one another and the table. Obviously, the officials knew that the team had no timeouts left. As you said, nice job of preventive officiating.
So where were you when Chris Webber was calling for a time out? Was it Webber that screwed up, or really the officials because they granted it?
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With 2 seconds left in the half, Team A was inbounding under Team B's basket. A 1 threw a long lob pass down court in hopes of a last second shot. B 5 jumped high to intercept the pass, gained possession and returned to the floor. B 4 signals to me for a timeout. I blow my whistle and grant it. The coach for Team B is visibly upset and thinks that I should have passed on the timeout. ... Now, for my own sake, I called the timeout by B 4 because I truly felt that Team B could have gotten a shot off. Unfortunately, only 0.1 remained. Please respond with comments.
Here is where the danger of the preventative officiating perspective comes up in this situation. "White wants a time out, but they don't have any left. Do I grant it, then give them a technical? Let's see . . . how much time is left? If I call the time out, could they get a shot off? If I ignore it, but the coach really wants it, how will he react? If I ignore it, will the opposing coach go nuts? Etc., etc., etc." When we start taking it upon ourselves to ignore a legitimate request, we're opening the door for more trouble than we want. Yea, we might sometimes get a pat on the back for making a good "no call" on that time out request, but we might also get a good ear full from one or the other coach. And is it our job to decide when to ignore it and when to grant it? Not that it can't or shouldn't EVER happen (depending, for example, on the level of the game, or whether it's a blowout anyway), but it seems to me the safest (and most proper?) course of action is to grant the time out when the coach or player asks for one. Then, if the clock runs out or shows zero time without the horn going off, maybe you could rule that the time out cannot be granted because the quarter or half is over. The coach who gets the time out here might be mad, but it was not the official who requested it. That's my take on this one, anyway.