Reading about Bill Stokes' collapse, I had to wonder why there was no replacement/standby official or why that official wasn't used.

Whether you think WNBA is professional or not (let's not get into that again!), this is a league tournament. My state HS association has alternates available for all 2-person games and for some 3-person games during the tournament, and I know that the NCAA men's D-I tourney has an alternate at the table for every game. Does anyone know about the NBA/WNBA policies for subs?

Since we are in a two man system still, we always have an extra official at the games (HS).

AK ref SE

The officials manual states that if for any reason an official cannot continue the game will be finished with 2.
The NBA manual says the same thing, and in fact several NBA games each year are refereed with two person crews due to injury, illness and such.

Doesn't the NBA use alternate officials for at least some play-off games,Drake?I'm sure that I've seen one at the table during the finals,but I'm not sure about the rest of the series.I know that they used to use one of the guys assigned to the next game as an alternate official.

Don't know if this is covered in the manual, but what if two refs get injured?

Mark, it is covered in the manual and in that case the game shall be officiated by one official.

Gee, I hate to ask, but what if <b><i>three</b></i> refs....

Ahhh, never mind... :D

My guess - home team coach is R, visiting team coach is U, and SCOTUS is called in somewhere along the line. :-D