[BillyMac]

Great question newbie. Welcome to the Forum. Tough question. No easy answer, but I'll give it a try.

When the shooter has the ball during a free throw, and when the thrower has the ball at his disposal during a throw in, are both situations where the clock is stopped, and although its not a dead ball situation, it's a "dead time" situation, where I would have no problem blowing my whistle, taking the ball back from the free thrower, or the thrower, and checking with the scorekeeper to see what the problem is. This way you can potentially avoid a "deadly" correctable error situation.

On the other hand if the free thrower has already started his shooting motion, but the ball is not in flight, then it becomes more difficult. I'm not going to use the word disconcertion here, but if the horn did any kind of "disconcertioning", then you may want to blow the whistle, making the ball dead, and deal with the problem at the table. The only problem here would be if the player continued to shoot the ball during the whistle. The whistle made the ball dead, so you can't count it if it went in. I don't believe that continuous motion applies here. You could count it if it was already in flight when you blew the whistle. It would probably be better to wait until the ball is in flight, and then blow the whistle. If it goes in, it can be counted. If it doesn't go in, then you can invoke NFHS 2-3: The referee shall make decisions on any points not specifically covered in the rules, and, after you deal with the problem at the table, give the shooter another shot, basing the replay on the horn "disconcertioning" the shooter. If the throw in had already occurred, I would wait to see the result of the throwin before you blow the whistle (see below).

During "live play", assuming you mean a live ball, clock ticking situation, it becomes more of a "gray area" decision. If a player is simply dribbling around, not being closely guarded, then I would think it would be alright to stop play to check with the scorekeeper. If, however, a player is making a move to the basket, or being closely guarded, or trapped, or a fast break is in progress, then I would hold off until a dead ball, like immediately after a made basket, or until there's a "lull" in the action.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Not only do I play a referee on television, I'm also a real referee, who slept at a Holiday Inn Express last night.