"You Cost me a timeout"
 

BV, A1 drives to the basket and gets fouled by B1. Both players crash to the ground, A1 limps to the free throw line to shoot two. I'm tableside after reporting the foul and A1 is heavily favoring his right leg, first free throw he shoots and misses by a long ways. Coach asks A1 if he's okay, player shakes his head no. My partner throws A1 the ball for his second shot and the coach requests timeout. I call timeout and hurt player limps over to bench and I ask coach if he's going to be subbed out. Coach says yes and then says "you cost me one of my timeouts, you should have called an injury timeout." I said, "if he would have stayed down I would have." "You're the reff, you can see he's hurt, now I've wasted a timeout." I said, " I thought he was going to shake it off!" Any thoughts?

HTBT but based on the explanation I would have made the same call. If he is attempting to play (and there is no blood) I am not going to make him leave the game. That is the coach's call IMHO

Robby

If a player is noticeably hurt then I always ask the player myself if he is ok. And if I hear the coach ask him and he responds negatively I wouldn't have given the ball to the player but instead confirmed that the player said he wasnt ok and asked the coach for a sub.

ETA- And I would NEVER say to a coach, "I thought he was going to shake it off." IMO that opens a whole can of worms, none of which are good.

Right here, TWEET! "Come get him coach and send me a sub."

Precisely....player looks injured, player says he's injured, player is injured. The coach need not be forced to take the timeout. Even if he asks for one for an injured player, I'm probably not going to charge them with it.

As soon as I hear that player's response to the coach, I'm calling time and getting a replacment. If for some reason, I allowed the play to continue like the OP, I wouldn't be charging the team with a timeout.

+1 times 4

Similar situation last night. A1 - a great shooter takes a jump shot and comes down, falls to floor and slaps the floor in pain - gets up and limps down on D. At next stoppage I ask if he's ok - he nods yes. Play on.

He goes for a rebound and comes down on ankle wrong again. Sits then gets up and waves to coach he needs to come out. Ball being rebounded and shot several times. A1 was out of play - outside 3 point line so we held whistles until B scored. A1 walking towards endline to receive inbound. At this time - HC team A requests a TO. Partner granted. Now he is upset because he wants us to change it as an injury TO.

If A1 had not been moving again to get the inbound pass - indicating to us he was ready to play - I would have whistled to check on him again. As it was we told the coach it was a charged TO and he could continue to discuss it with us or he could coach his team. I understood his frustration - but it should have been with A1 - not us.

Correct Procedure ???
 

You mean you held whistles until B shot?

it was kind of a simultaneous thing as B slammed the ball home big time.

Why? If A1 appear injured, err on the side of safety and stop the game. Don't force a team to take a timeout to deal with and injury even if the player is wanting to keep playing or is trying to play through it. Stop play, let the coach either get them out of the game or indicate that they're OK.

I did check with him once before. He insisted he was ok and he and coached said he should play. Then, when it happened again, we held whistles as he was not in harms way but after B scored he was walk/jogging (just as he had done before) to get inbounds pass. That was a sign to me that he was still ok so I didn't whistle. After he got the ball and was dribbling up the court the coach calls TO. From the time B scored and A1 received ball and was dribbling upcourt was only a matter of seconds. He appeared to be in as good condition as he had been when coach and he said he was good to play. Both times he had gone to the floor, then gotten up, limped a step or two and then started to jog. IMHO - we handled this correctly. If he had remained on the floor, or couldn't jog or move freely it might have been different. The coach could also have just said "he's hurt" and we could have whistled an injury. He choose to call a TO. It was granted.