Funny signal
 

BJV game last night (2 man this time), I'm L. Just as I'm crossing over to get a look (the ball is in the lane Trail side), A1 goes up for a contested shot. My partner has a whistle, and as I look to see if the ball goes in, I glance and notice T has his thumbs up. The ball goes in. T chops the "count it" signal, and now I'm as confused as hell.

Partner realizes he just "intercoursed that one up" (his term later) and collects himself and tells me he had a held ball before the shot and the basket does not count. He then walks over to the coach to eat his crow and explain what he had.

B1 had capped the ball with his hand, partner saw it and blew the whislte.
B1, hearing the whistle, stopped playing and let go. A1, still in the air, finished his shot.

I gave him an extra few seconds to explain before I put it in.

Moral of the story: patient whistle.

Somewhere there's a long, old thread on this exact play. The argument was about whether we could call a held ball by rule on a play where the ball was eventually released on a try before an airborne shooter landed.

Iirc I was on the side that said if you don't actually prevent the try from being released, it doesn't meet the definition of a held ball.

I think my partner would agree with you (so do I). He was kicking himself later.