Verbally counting during a throw-in

[HokiePaul]

Originally Posted by Adam

That's unsporting, and it's also deceptive. I'd put a stop to it, and frankly your association needs to stand up and say it.

I don't agree with this. It could potentially be unsporting I suppose, but counting out loud in and of itself is not unsporting. The defense could have a legitimate reason for wanting to count out loud and I'm certainly not penalizing the act of counting out loud. Perhaps the defense is fronting the offense and the on-ball defender is sharing information with his/her teamates.

If the counting were to be penalized, it would be for the "how", not the "what", and it would take a lot for me to go this route when it could simply be ignored.

And as far as being deceptive ... defenses should be allowed to be deceptive as long as that deception doesn't violate any rules. You wouldn't penalize a team for deceptively yelling out "2-3 zone, 2-3 zone" only to actually play a full court press. Why would any other deceptive verbal communication be any different?