Indirect Techs
 

A guy in our area came up with this question:

Rule 4-19-13
" a team foul is any personal foul or technical foul (except indirect
technical fouls) which is charged to either team. All team fouls are counted
to reach the bonus free throw"

I don't understand indirect technical fouls. (I know some T's are indirect
as far as charged to the head coach as described on page 71 of the rule
book) But on the chart on page 71 it lists every indirect T situation as
counting towards the team fouls. So, what is the indirect technical foul
that the rule is referring to that doesn't count toward the team fouls?

Think of it this way, indirect fouls are offshoots of other fouls. No action results in only an indirect foul, there is a direct somewhere. That direct foul is what adds to the team foul count on the foul chart on page 71.

Without the parenthetical wording in rule 4-19-13, any foul which carries an indirect to the coach would actually add two to the team count.

Each technical foul charged to any bench personnel other than the head coach is also indirectly charged to the head coach. This includes technicals on assistant coaches, trainers, team members, statisticians, towel boys, etc. During pre-game warmups and at halftime all players are bench personnel for purposes of this rule. After three indirect technicals, the head coach is ejected.

The notion of indirect technical fouls makes the behavior of bench personnel the head coach's problem and provides an incentive to keep them in line. However, as Snaqs pointed out, if indirect technicals counted toward the team foul count it would penalize a team twice for a single act.

Also after two indirects and one direct. NF rules.

The OP and his local official aren't reading the chart properly.
As Snaqs wrote, the "Team-foul count" in the "Counts Toward" column indicates that the DIRECT technical foul in the "Charged To:" column adds to the team-foul count. It has nothing to do with an indirect technical to the Head Coach. Notice that ALL of the different types of technical fouls listed have "team-foul count" in the boxes under "Counts Toward", even the ones which do NOT get charged indirectly to the Head Coach. That wouldn't be the case if this reference were for the indirects. In short, read the chart only from left to right as a normal English speaking person would, and not in any direction as a computer may.

I was focusing on indirects, but you are correct. There are also other combinations of direct and indirect that will earn a coach an early night.

Stated more generally...

The coach is ejected after 2 direct T's or a total of 3 T's....whichever comes first.

To be more specific about Camron's generality, ...or one flagrant direct technical. ;)

"Ummm flagrant direct technicals" (Apologies To Homer Simpson)
 

My favorite flavor.

Thanks for the help!