Odd Throw-in

[actuary77]

This play happened to me in my last game of the season. I'll try to describe as best as I can.

Team B scored a basket. Team B coach called timeout (they were behind). Team A retains the right to run the endline on the throw-in. As we resume play, two Team A players were standing OOB: A1 next to me and A2 on the other side of the lane. At first, I did not know what was going on so I asked A2 standing OOB (the one farther from me) that he can't stay OOB and should go on the court. He reluctantly did so.

I blew my whistle, handed the ball to A1 for the throw-in. As soon as I handed the ball, A2 went OOB again. After about 2 secs on my count, A1 passed the ball to A2 and then A2 proceeded to throw-in the ball with no other issues. I let the play continue.

There was some defensive pressure on the back court, so after this whole episode happened, it finally occurred to me what Team A was doing. Sort of like a trick play to let the defense initially pressure A1 who ended up being a decoy. Not necessary for this play (imo) since there was no real man-to-man pressure on A1. Obviously something the coach drew up and wanted executed.

Is there a violation on this?

My initial thought was no (hence I didn't call anything) since this would be no different than had the timeout not been called - A1 picking up the ball after the basket, goes OOB then A2 asking for the ball to do the throw-in instead. I reasoned that since Team A retained "run the endline", this play was fine as well.

Of course there's no question that this is not legal if it were a spot throw-in, once the ball is at A1's disposal.