Water on the court...

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by PG_Ref

10-1-5

ART. 5

Allow the game to develop into an actionless contest, this includes the following and similar acts:

b. Delay the game by preventing the ball from being made promptly live or from being put in play. See 7-5-1 and 8-1-2 for the resumption-of-play procedure to use after a time-out or the intermission between quarters. The procedure is used prior to charging a technical foul in these specific situations.

f. Not having the court ready for play following any time-out after any team warning for delay.

In the OP, the scenario was that the player spilled water "everywhere". If there's water on the court and the game is being delayed to clean it up, it would fall under 5b. Whether to enforce it or not is each crew's call to make.

The ball was already live (in the OP)....it was "during" a FT. So, if the player misses, it is nothing, but if they make it creating a dead ball it becomes a T since a new live ball is being delayed???? I don't think so. The result should be the same regardless of the status of the ball.

The water spillage rule that has been referenced is for the resumption of play following a timeout.

The real question, ruleswise, is not whether it is delaying the game but whether the water bottle/cup is legal to be on the court whether it spills or not. If it is not legal, the player is not legally equipped, send them off the court. Would you let them play the game while walking around with an empty water bottle? If it is legal, you don't have any rule to enforce even if it happens to spill.

I believe that, technically, the a cup or bottle on the court is illegal equipment. Not allowed. The team can take a timeout, substitute, or wait until the end of the period.