[RookieDude]

Late:
No Brainer...Whack the kid. Players get 0 tolerance when unsportingly addressing officials, in my games.

In fact, 0 tolerance when unsportingly addressing anyone....

example:

Short Version: I whacked a kid for taunting a player last night.

Long Version:

Last night I was part of a 3 person crew officiating a Martin Luther King Jr Day H.S. Varsity tournament. Late in a 20 point blow-out...B1, that was winning, was guarding A1 as A1 was dribbling up the floor. I'm Trail with the two players.

B1 started saying something like, "I'm going to strip you boy"...then B1 steals the ball and starts dribbling towards his basket as he says, "see I got ya"!

All this takes place in less than 2 seconds.

I blow my whistle and Whack B1 right after he stole the ball from A1.

The crowd and Coach initially think I call a foul on the clean steal. (I probably could have slowed down my "T" sign after I blew the whistle...and held it a little longer) No one heard the kid taunting the other player. But, I did...so he got whacked. I said to the table, in a loud voice..."Unsporting behavior, taunting on blue 5".

One of my partners came over and asked if I wanted to administer the FT's...I said no, I wanted to talk to the Coach.

The Coach was standing in his box as I approached. I told him what happened...and he said, "We don't need that, and the sub for him is at the table". I said, "Great"...and away we went.
We finished the game uneventful.

Moral of the story: Don't be afraid to issue warranted T's...just come up with a sound philosophy on what warrants the T.