30-Second Time-Out

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Rule 5-12-5..."Players shall remain standing during the confines of the bench area during a 30-second time-out".

Rule 4-34-1..."A player is one of five team members who are legally on the court at any given time, except intermission".

Is this an intermission? Nope.
Are "bench personnel" also "players"? Nope, rule 4-34-2 separately defines bench personnel.

Ergo, bench personnel sits and players must stand during a 30-second TO.

Your logic doesn't work. The rules you cited only specify who the players are and what the players are required to do. They don't give any indication about what non-players are permitted to do or restricted from doing. By your interpretation, the head coach would not be able to be in the huddle with the five players since he is not a player.

10-4-4c says all bench personnel can stand during a timeout....without reference to the length of the timeout.

All team members may participate in any timeout.

Additionally, the coach may be substituing someone in and is not required to have them report until the 10 second reamining point. They do not become a player until they are brought into the game by the official. Are they not permitted in the huddle?

The purpose of having the players stand is not to seperate them from the rest of the team but to facilitate getting them back on the floor more quickly so that play can be resumed. Having the bench personnel standing with them will have no effect whatsoever on this goal. If the bench personnel can't get 5-10 feet to their chair before the players get to the throwin spot, they wouldn't even be on the team.