4 players on the court

[frezer11]

Originally Posted by BryanV21

In order to be a player a team member would have to enter the game legally, and not reporting to the table before entering is not legal. So a member of the team that had already reported into the game may run onto the court, but not just any team member.

Assuming A5 had already reported/entered the game before the timeout, or reported during the timeout as a sub, then he could run onto the court in this situation.

Agree that they need to report and be beckoned on to legally enter. However, and I don't have my rule book here to quote from, but I believe somewhere in rule 3 that it is specified something like, ".... If the entry is not legal, then the substitute becomes a player when the ball becomes live." So once the ball was live, which was simultaneous in this case, then that substitute becomes a player.

Not to mention, I don't know of many officials who know who all 5 players on the court were for sure during a mass substitution, other than when you note a specific player going to the bench. So even if I'm incorrect about being too late to penalize, I would say 95% of the time they'd still get away with it.