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Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee
Kidding aside, there's absolutely no difference between this request and the other ones. Or maybe some of the other distinguished posters think that it's solely their choice when it comes to choosing what pre-TO requests they should grant or not grant. 
You can't have it all ways. |
Well, there are 3 differences -
The first difference is the rule says one request gets one grant. You cannot have 1 request that gets granted at multiple times, as this coach is expecting. So if he had said I want a TO the first time the inbounds count gets to 4 we have a different story, leading to the second difference
This is a stupid tactic by the coach. The first time the count gets to 4 on an inbound play he could be up by 1 with 4 seconds left and no time outs left. Why would a coach open himself up to a T by pre-requesting a TO in this sitch?
Finally, if the coach makes this request before the game I cannot legally grant it, since timeouts cannot be granted prior to the ball becoming live.
A little more seriously, if you're standing by the bench on the second FT and he gets up to request a TO on the make just give it to him. If his guard is slowly bringing the ball up the backcourt without pressure and he gets up to request a TO when he gets to halfcourt just give it to him.
If you don't trust the coach or you're the nervous type look at him again before blowing the whistle.
If anything funny, unexpected or different happens between these pre-requests and the granting of the timeout then don't grant it.
It's really not that hard.