Timeout, inadvertent whistle situation

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by mbyron

Three distinct events:
1. Coach requests time out.
2. Official grants time out.
3. Official signals time out by blowing whistle.

3 always happens after 2, though the time lag varies. If I find myself in a situation where I hit the whistle as a steal is in progress, I tell the aggrieved coach "I'd already granted the time out request, coach."

They hear the other coach's request, and they want that time out granted when their kid has the ball. I don't get much flak about it.

Nope. #2 and #3 happen at the same time. You have no rules support for your nice little schema. You may desire it to work that way, but according to the rules it doesn't. The ball isn't dead in your step #2. The ball becomes dead in #3 when the whistle blows. The defender made a good steal and your method screws him out of it. The coach wasn't quick enough in making his time-out request. That's all.

I hope that you don't go back and put an extra two seconds on the clock to reflect the time between when you "granted" the time-out before the opponent stole the ball and when you sounded your whistle.