Public address talking during FTs
 

A local school has a PA that announces the play by play--"there's a steal by Wilson, the feed to Johnson..." as it's happening. This is annoying like fingernails on a chalkboard, but I'm unaware of a specific rule against it. I bring this up because he gets so caught up in his descriptions that he'll often be behind on the nuts and bolts stuff. So one of my players is at the FT line, he has the ball ready to shoot, and we've got this PA blaring: "the foul was on #42, his first personal, second team foul..."

The guy is not intending to distract my player, but there's definitely a level of unprofessionalism that shines through. As an official, would you step in here and tell the guy to shut up when a FT shooter has the basketball?

Yes, I would.... but I would have told him that way before if he was really doing play-by-play.

Search the forum.... there was a thread not too long ago about the PA doing play-by-play.

As the referee I wouldn't do anything. I don't believe that this is against any rule or a safety concern, so I'd leave it up to the game administration and refer anyone who was upset about it to the league office.

The PA announcing system doesn't seem to fall within the purview of the artificial noisemaker rule.

I always try to finishing speaking before the shooter gets the ball for the first three throw. There may not be a rule about it per se, but I figure its a matter of courtesy.

Edited to add: Aside from the occasional mention of an assisting player after a basket, I do not give a running live game commentary as described in the OP.

I try to move things along with FTs, but PA announcers slow things down because you have to wait for them to stop talking. If they would just say "Jones has 2 FTs" right after the foul is reported instead of waiting till the ball is about to be given to the shooter to say "Jones is now shooting the first of his 2 FTs" and followed with "Jones is now shooting his 2nd FT", I would be a happier camper. And some of them also add "Jones scores on his first FT".

When I first started I would say "Two shots, rest on this one, blah blah blah" and similar banter on the 2nd one. I found that the game would move along better if I told them "2" or "1" and gave the shooter the ball. The PA announcing makes me feel like I have regressed.:mad:

I don't wait.

Me too. If someone has a complaint about the PA announcer talking, I tell 'em nicely to take their concerns to home management. As long as they're not saying anything derogotary about the officials or the teams, who cares?

Me three.