Injury - Rest of the players

[wyo96]

Spirited discussion between me and another official as we watched a game.

A1 is hurt, A1's coach is beckoned and officials send players towards their respective benches and remind them to "stay on the floor".
While near the bench, players get drinks of water, towel off, etc.

Are the players allowed to get a drink? It is not a time out, but a stoppage of play. An injury stoppage could be for 30 secs or several minutes.

In practice, I would allow it, but I am not sure there is rule or case book support to allow (or dis-allow)

Are you aware of rule or case support either way?

[JugglingReferee]

Athletes need water to stay hydrated. Being unhydrated could lead to an undesirable situation.

Let them have water.

[jdw3018]

I don't know if there's rules support one way or the other, but if I'm sending them to their benches during any sort of stoppage of play, I'm letting them treat it as a timeout.

And almost never am a penalizing a player for grabbing a drink.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by jdw3018

I don't know if there's rules support one way or the other, but if I'm sending them to their benches during any sort of stoppage of play, I'm letting them treat it as a timeout.

And almost never am a penalizing a player for grabbing a drink.

Let them sit. Let them drink. Let them be merry.

If there is a player down and not actually getting up, I'll direct the players to the bench and they can do whatever they wish once there...sit, stand, roll on the floor. There are no rules that directly address what the players can or can not do when the game is stopped due to an injury.

We also have no idea how long it will be until the player gets up or is carried off the floor. If the time span is unusually long, I'm even going to offer each team a chance to "warm up" again for a few minutes.

[tref]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

We also have no idea how long it will be until the player gets up or is carried off the floor. If the time span is unusually long, I'm even going to offer each team a chance to "warm up" again for a few minutes.

Really?

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by tref

Really?

Sure, why not? If the EMT's take 20 minutes to put the kid on a backboard, you wouldn't let the teams warm up again? How about 40 minutes?

[tref]

The only time I've been in a similar situation (girl goes down & EMTs take 30+ minutes to arrive) both coaches agreed to suspend the game as the players were upset & unable to continue that night.

Had they continued, I guess it would've been a good idea to allow them to warmup.

[jdw3018]

Originally Posted by tref

Really?

Not to speak for Camron, but I certainly agree with him. If it's an exceptionally long delay (for example, requiring paramedics and a player being stretchered out), it may be appropriate to allow players a minute or two to stretch, shoot a few shots, etc.

For me, this could be anywhere from 2-5 minutes based on the length of the delay and what the coaches would like.

[grunewar]

When a player is down i send the players to their bench and keep them on the floor. I've never prevented anyone from having water before.

I've never had the "long delay" before (thankfully), but can see allowing them to go to their benches and sit if it's an extended stoppage.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by tref

Really?

Yep. Really.

[BktBallRef]

Originally Posted by wyo96

Spirited discussion between me and another official as we watched a game.

A1 is hurt, A1's coach is beckoned and officials send players towards their respective benches and remind them to "stay on the floor".
While near the bench, players get drinks of water, towel off, etc.

Are the players allowed to get a drink? It is not a time out, but a stoppage of play. An injury stoppage could be for 30 secs or several minutes.

In practice, I would allow it, but I am not sure there is rule or case book support to allow (or dis-allow)

Are you aware of rule or case support either way?

They can go over and get a cup of water during a live ball, as long as they stay on the floor. There's nothing that prevents it.