Time out or not?

[deecee]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

What????

Any official on the floor can grant the timeout if that can get a view on the ball and can confirm who is requesting the timeout. The C couldn't, apparently. They don't have to be ballwatching to look for it at the time of the request. The official with primary coverage can't talk his/her eyes off the play to verify who is yelling timeout. Anyone that hears timeout who can look to see where the ball is SHOULD grant it if they can see it in control. Seems like this partner is the perfect one to grant the time out since he/she could confirm the coach was calling for it and could see the ball. Often, it is an official farthest from the play that is facing the bench that gets this.

In this case I just didn't picture from the description that the L had the player and ball. He was just described as being near. I imagined L watching post play and ball in the corner behind him.

I would add that it's these officials that grant TO when opponents both have possession of the ball or when a ball is loose and we have an interrupted dribble. I do not prefer the farthest official to grant TO's unless possession is clear. Best case scenario is they may have been right, but in a lot of cases clear player/team control is questionable.