[DownTownTonyBrown]

Originally, I didn't finish reading question #2 before I made my answer - didn't realize Team A had taken the ball out and continued after scoring in Team B's basket . Given some of the responses though, I now have some additional questions.

BBREF seemed very confident that this was not correctable. At what time did it become not correctable - once the throw-in had been made? Can someone explain the timing of 2.10.3?

JR says the covering rule is 4.5.4. So do the points get credited to Team A? I don't think this is the proper rule unless both teams were confused and play proceded for an extended period of time with both teams scoring and committing fouls etc. In this particular case Team A recognised their error, apparently took the ball out after scoring in Team B's basket, and then proceded to the proper end of the court.

I'm thinking that 2.10 is applicable. The rule inadvertently set aside was the back court violation which resulted in an erroneous score. The ball became dead after the shot was made in the wrong basket. The ball became live (1st live ball after the error) when Team A proceded with their throw-in. I'm thinking this is still correctable at this point - remove points from Team B's total and administer a throw-in for Team B at the division line.

If Team A continues and scores, the ball becomes dead and live again with Team B's throw-in (2nd live ball since the error). Now it is too late to correct - Team B keeps their points, Team A keeps their points, and play continues as normal.

Somebody correct me where I am wrong.... BBRef, Tony, where is the error in my thought process?

Obviously, the best solution is never allow a correctable error situation to develop. Your justification is going to seem flimsy in the end. As for how late can your whistle be... for this situation I would say, philosophically, you are too late once Team A has administered their throw-in and is headed to the right end of the court. But you are going to have to do something if a coach starts howling at you for a correctable error.

In general, your whistle can be as late as...., until something else has happened. But I think it really depends a tremendous amount upon your personal clout. Some officials could likely be a couple seconds late on a call and still sell it well enough that everyone agrees the correct call was made; others couldn't sell a late call to their own grandmother.

Personally, I wouldn't care how late it was, if I could avoid a correctable error situation.