If a kids shoe comes off, and the opponents get the ball, should you stop the game? The team was not in the middle of a fast break, but they were starting to push the ball. Now if it is their ball, I say yes, but if the opponents have the ball, I say no.

Revision; the ball was stolen by the defense on this play so the ball never became dead. The team started to push the ball up the floor to score, but it was blown dead for the shoe.

This was a varsity game between two top 10 rated teams.

[Edited by MJT on Dec 14th, 2004 at 10:39 AM]

fine with me. what's the age group?
while giving the kid "the look", now tie the darn thing up!

Can somebody please tell me how I can edit my signature line?

Use your judgement.If a basket is scored blow the whislte and let him/her get their shoe back on. Same holds true if opponents are walking ball up the court. If opponents have a good scoring opportunity hold the whistle. IMO just use common sense.

I'll delay putting the ball in play to let a player tie or put his shoe on.

When the ball's live it's his problem, not mine.

Chris on the upper right hand side of the screen under the ads you'll see an icon that says "profile"

Click that and edit away.

How's this for an answer...Depends. I think your guideline is good.

Had one occassion where the player stayed behind and was putting the shoe back on. I set up in a manner where I could catch him in my peripheral vision so he wouldn't "surprise" me when he re-entered play. He was back in action before his team regained possession. If his team had started back at him before he was ready I was prepared to stop play.

I also had a girl lose her shoe. Other team goes into a set offense when the get into their front court. Her attempt to quickly put her shoe back on failed so she tossed it to the bench and started up court...Tweet. "Coach, I need a sub for 12."

When she sat on the bench I heard the coach say "You always lose a shoe. Now tie the stupid things where they will stay on or I'm gonna make you wear bow-biters." I almost spit my whistle out trying not to laugh.

I revised the starting thread after a question or two and to clarify the play, so please re-read it if you have already posted.
Considering it is a varsity game, the team is pushing the ball to get a score, and the ball never became dead, I think you should not stop play. If the ball is dead or the team with the shoe problem has the ball I think you should stop play, but in this case it is like an injured player, which unless the injury looks very serious, you should not stop an opponents push up the floor.

Just depends. Last night I was doing a 7/8th boys game and it was a blow out. As Team A was going back on defense, a kids glasses came off and hit the floor. I blew I whistle and let him get his glasses before someone crushed them.

Although you may choose to follow the same procedure for a shoe, glasses and contacts are specifically covered in the rules. Shoes are not.

If I remember correctly, the rule book only says not to charge a team with a time-out to correct a glasses problem. It doesn't tell you when (or if) to stop play if glasses should come off during play.

Z

No whistle to put a shoe back on UNLESS the shoe presents a danger to the other players.

What a difference in opinion!!! I always whistle for shoe-coming-offness, unless a team is in scoring position.

What about untied shoelaces?

If the ball is dead, I'll delay putting it in play for laces. I'm not stopping the game for a shoe lace.

Oh my, that is very dangerous. If a kid is on defense, he'll try to play like the before he takes himself out of the play to tie his shoes. If that gets stepped on when he's trying to jump, OUCH!!!!!!!

I have been officiating basketball for 13 years, with JUCO, HS, REC, and youth leagues I've probably done 600+ games a year. That's over 7,000 games and I have NEVER seen a player go down because of a shoe lace, NEVER.

If they can't keep them tied and have to stop playing defense, too bad. I've got 9 other players out there with their shoes tied CORRECTLY.

If they can't keep them tied and their team has to play 4 on 5 on offense, too bad, again I've got 9 other players with their shoes tied correctly.

Me too. I've seen some weird injuries but I've never seen an injury due to a lace, a shoe or lack of same.

Of course now that I've said that... :rolleyes:

btw, 600+ games a year? I dunno...doesn't seem right to me. You must be slacking off. ;)

I've driven my car 300,000 miles and I've never been in an accident. Should I stop wearing my seat belt?

The risk for injury seems obvious. The number of games you've done without such injury seems irrelevant. If someone reported an incident of injury, would your stance change?

Have you ever seen a player injured because of a lace? Have you ever heard of a case?

A player could become injured by a draw string being outside of the shorts too, are you going to stop the game to tuck it in?

A player's shorts could fall down and trip them up, are you going to stop a game to tell them to pull them up?

If it does not present a realistic danger, there is no reason to stop the game. The player can tie their shoe WITHOUT us stopping the game.

Stuff happens.

Shoes coming off, laces loose, something on the floor, blah blah blah.

There is a certain line where we must play on - expensive and potentially dangerous glasses/contacts are completely different than shoes/laces coming off.

I seriously doubt most coaches would approve of you blowing a play dead because some kid didn't do his shoes up well enough.

How often does it happen, once a year? What's the harm? I'm talking about a non-scoring position.

It happens in almost EVERY game below varsity in HS that I do. Many of the shoes have the rope-like laces that don't tie well, unless they are in double knots.

The AI Reeboks were the worst shoe I EVER saw, I'd have kids having to tie them 5 or 6 times a game.

Like I said wait for a whistle and say get your laces and have EVERY player check their's, while you are at it.

It's my experience that the majority of serious injuries happen during a "loose ball" - twisted ankles and elbows to the head during rebounding action, pile ons and skid marks diving on the floor, people diving over tables into the first row to prevent an OOB, etc. And this happens much much more frequently than a shoe coming undone.

From now on in the name of safety I'm stopping play as soon as team control ends.

If you've driven your car 300,000 miles and you've never been in an accident and you've never seen one and you've never met anybody that's been in one or seen one, nor have you ever heard of one happening, then you're probably okay.