Too quick?
 

BillyMac's thread on technical fouls reminded me of a situation in one of my recent games. 3-whistle game. I'm Trail. Adult on the Team B's bench (not really a coach, as far as I can tell) starts chirping about 3-seconds and repeats it several times during the possession. Eventually, my parter at L has a foul on the B1. The adult now addresses my partner directly, saying he should've had the 3-seconds first, blah blah blah.

My partner addresses the head coach directly and says, "Take care of him or I will." The stupid adult then has to get one more word in and says, of course, "Well, then just call the 3-seconds". At which point my partner T'd him up.

During the free throws for the technical, I'm still T and right in front of the head coach. He says very respectfully, "I know he was talking, but you're partner told me to handle it, and then he didn't give me the chance to do it."

I said, "Coach, your guy didn't give you the chance to do it."

But in all honesty, I think the coach had a really good point. If you tell the coach to help you out, it seems reasonable to expect that you give him/her a chance to do it.

In this particular case, do you think the T was too quick, given what my partner said to the head coach. In general, do you like that approach (take care of it, or I will)?

Just looking for thoughts.

When reading your post I thought the same thing that you did. If you're going to ask the HC to shut him up, at least give him ample time to do so. Now if the guy is profane or personal, stick him without a second thought. I'm not one to shy away from taking care of business, but it seems like your partner was a bit quick on the trigger.

Too quick? I think not, like you said he was stupid!
The player tried to punk your partner & actually told him what's what. We run the game & the court, if I tell a coach to "take care of it or I will" (which I happen to love) & the same idiot pops off with the same remarks before the coach could handle him, I'd whack him too!!
Coach needs to act fast. JMO

So, the coach admitted he knew the assistant was talking, and didn't say anything to him before this, right? Also, the assistant was an adult, so they probably understood the meaning of the phrase "Take care of him or I will", and continued to talk, correct?

Was it a little quick? Maybe. But we don't know if there was any interaction before this particular possession; perhaps it was an ABS T based on comments made earlier. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it, based on the above.

I agree this may have been a quick trigger, but I am also looking at it from the angle - did the adult on the bench hear the warning to the HC?

If he did hear the warning, he probably knew what was coming and STILL chose to run his yapper just one last time.....and while unfortunate, the WHACK may have been ok IMO. Coach has to control his bench. Period.

I have no problem with this T. A player or an assistant does not get the privledge to show us up.

Now had the HC been the one complaining and we warned the HC and he got that last little remark in then I probably would have let it go depending on how he said it. If he used flailing arms, yelling, putting on a show, etc. I would have popped him though.

+1

The 'T' was well-earned and probably came too late :D

However, I personally don't like "Take care of him or I will." . I have supervisors who most assuredly would not be happy with that statement.

I know I would not like it if a head coach were to tell me to "Take care of it..." when discussing a play with me.

Let's see, Scrapper. You tell the head coach to take care of it or you will, and the assistant responds by giving you an order. So, you took care of it.

You were right the first time. The assistant didn't give the head coach a chance.

All these threads on the timing of Ts remind me of George Carlin's "those who drive slower than you are idiots; those who drive faster than you are morons."

That's interesting and a different perspective. I want to remain respectful of the coach and his authority, but at the same time he needs to understand that bench behavior is his responsibility until/unless it becomes ours. I've used a variation of the above so I'm curious to know how you would handle a similar situation (i.e., what you would say to the coach).

Part of the the HC's job is to ensure that his ACs know what they can and can't do, whether the HC realizes this or not. Given that you're in 3-man, and knowing that you're a very qualified official, I'd bet that this is a higher-level game with very competent coaches.

The AC should then know that once he's been handled by either an official or his HC, that his leash is very short, if not infinitesimally small.

So the question comes down to how egregious was the AC's last comment?

IMHO, the AC knew that he'd only be voicing his opinion one more time, and he decided to do so after being told (even if he didn't realize it) to shut up.

I've got no problem with a T here. Let's not forget that he's an AC, and not the HC.

I absolutely believe the T was warranted here. On the respectful note, All I have ever had to say to the HC is "Coach can you help me with your bench?" and I make a motion toward the player or person I am concerned with.

It seems to work well.

AC hears the warning and figures he needs to get one more pop off before he's told to be quiet by his HC. No problem with the T.

Just want to be clear on this.... "AC" = a$$ coach, correct? :D