Please Help ...

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Yes you did. And I didn't know the answer, which is why I ended the last sentence in the post, "Is there a rule that tells us that bench personnel, other than players, and substitutes, ... may not get involved in pregame warmups?" with a question mark.

Is there such a rule that tells us who may warmup with the team, and who may not? What if the team chaplain (bench personnel) dunks during pregame warmups?

Jurassic Referee: Do you have an interpretation on this, or are you playing "devil's advocate? I know that you must, at least, have an opinion.

There is no rule that I know of that states who can or can't warmup. I don't think that you have any rules justification to stop bench personnel such as team trainers/statisticians from warming up with team members as long as they were legally dressed. The rules just don't cover it. I do know that there is no valid reason by rule for the R to check or do anything about the number of players warming up pre-game if that number differs with the number of players in the book. The old thread that Scrappy posted kinda alluded to that. That's why I took exception with you for including that coda in your Administrative Infraction essay.

As for dunking pre-game.....
1) I disagree completely with JAR about "T"ing up someone in uniform if that person is not a member of that team's bench personnel. I know of no rule that will allow you to assess a technical foul to someone who isn't a member of a team's bench personnel. The only rule even close imo is rule 2-8-1 which covers unsporting conduct by a team follower, and I'd be very, very careful about issuing a "T" using that rule. Just have that person removed from the court.
2) The rules related to pre-game dunking refer to players and team members only. They do not relate to other members of a team's bench personnel afaik. However, there is nowayinhell you should ever allow those bench personnel members to dunk pre-game. I doubt very much that was the purpose and intent of the no pre-game dunking rule. In that particular case, you can use the language of rule 10-4-1 which says bench personnel shall not commit an unsporting foul and also says that "this includes but is not limited to...". Iow you can call a "T" if you feel that an act is unsporting...and someone from bench personnel dunking pre-game sureasheck is committing an unsporting act imo. Note that the penalty is exactly the same as the penalty for a player/team member dunking pre-game. It's a direct "T" to the offender and an indirect "T" to the head coach.

Rules rulz! The odds are a million to 1 that you'd ever actually see in a real game what we're discussing. If by some stoopid happenchance it actually did occur though, I would just use what rules I do have and then post-game try to get a definitive ruling from my state governing body.