Score tied. Team A with ball in its backcourt, advancing to the frontcourt. Three seconds left and A1 has ball with a good look for game winning shot from about 23-25 feet away. You hear A2 requesting a time out from the other side of the floor (not the coach and not coach directed). Grant the TO or hear nothing?

Grant the timeout.
 

Not your responsibility to know when to call a timeout. If you start making judgements on why a timeout is called, you might get in a bad habit. Call the timeout, blame it on the kid. BTW, someone other than you probably heard the did.

Peace

I say make sure A2 is a player and that he was the one requesting the TO (not C1 in the first row of the stands) and then grant it. I think you run a bigger risk of time expiring and A's coach screaming that they wanted a timeout which you didn't grant, whereas if coach A didn't want the timeout, he can only (truly) blame A2.

(That doesn't mean, of course, that he won't yell at the refs!)

Again, situations like this one are why I love the fact that in FIBA a time out can't be called when the ball is in play. Makes everyone's life simpler.

Had a similiar situation several years ago...home team down by 1 with 4 seconds left, ball oob under B's baseline...A4 breaks long and gets pass about his own head of key...Coach A jumps up screaming for time-out, so I blow whistle...A4 takes one dribble and then - right after whistle blows - jumps and dunks ball...wave it off, grant the time-out...team comes out of time-out, can't get shot off in last few seconds and lose by one...they asked for it, grant it...

I think in the process of verifying that a teammate is actually calling it, there is a chance they could score.

In that sitch I am going to make darn sure the right person is calling for a TO.

A little TO story from a Michigan fan (and don't we know last minute TOs!). Last spring, we are in the semifinals of a tournament, down 3 in overtime, less than 30 seconds to play. I have a good three-point shooter/defender on the floor at playing the 3, but she has a history of making terrible decisions and shoots well only off the pass and only if wide open. Guess who steals the ball on the other team's inbounds - my awesome defender 3. She has a defender right on top of her in the corner of the court. Knowing that we are milliseconds from turning the ball back over, I scream for a TO. While I make sure the trail is seeing my request, my shaky 3 simply makes her best pass of the year, reaching around the defender and feeding my 4 for an easy lay-in. As the ball is released to a wide open player, I could hear through all the noise in the gym the whistle granting my TO. Nobody knows but me that the basket doesn't count until order is restored. Hawks Coach is feeling pretty brilliant right now :(

Only one thing to do - call the play to set my 3 up for the open 3. Unbelievably (as if this wasn't unbelievable enough), everyone runs the play as diagrammed, this girl makes her 3rd big play in about 2 seconds of clock time and coldly nails the 3. When the other team rushes up court to score, we steal, pass, hit the lay-up, and Hawks Coach is feeling prrrrrretty brilliant now ;)

Dickie V. shudda been there - he would be talking for days about my knowledge of the game and ability to get the big win for my team! Players can sure make you look smart sometimes.

OZ I couldn't agree more...

ADR

Grant time-out when you are sure it was the correct person calling it. There is never a sure shot! Not even on a dunk!

AK ref SE

The only sure thing is that any shot, no matter where taken, is sure to go in IF you grant the TO :) And if you don't grant it because they are about to take a lay-up, the fates will intervene and make the lay-up clank off the rim.