Removing jersey

[BoomerSooner]

I'm assuming that everybody is under the impression that removing the jersey within the visual confines of the playing area is automatically a technical foul, and I'll bet I get heavy criticism for suggesting it shouldn't be automatic, but here goes...

Rule 10-3-6(h) reads "a player shall not:" (section 3) ... "commit an unsporting foul. This includes but is not limited to, acts or conduct such as:" (article 6)... "removing the jersey and/or pants/skirt within the visual confines of the playing area." (part h). Unbroken the rule reads: A player shall not commit an unsporting foul. This includes, but is not limited to, acts or conduct such as removing the jersey and/or pants/skirt within the visual confines of the playing area.

The prohibition found in this rule is on committing an unsporting foul. The question we should to ask in the OP is was there anything unsporting about the players removing their jerseys in order to comply with the rule? Hopefully most of us would argue that any behavior performed with the intent of complying with the rules can't be unsporting. The obvious counter argument to this is that the rule explicitly tells us that removing the jersey is an unsporting act, and it is this interpretation that leads to the idea that this is an automatic foul. The problem is that the rule doesn't explicitly say it is an unsporting act. The phrase "such as" indicates items listed are examples of behaviors that if considered unsporting should be penalized.

To support my position, I'll use rule 10-3-5(b) for comparison. Piecing together the language from section, article and part into a single line, we have: A player shall not delay the game by acts such as failing when in possession, to immediately pass the ball to the nearer official when a whistle blows. If we assume failing to comply with the language of part b is automatically a foul (as is done in often done with removing the jersey), then we should all have many more delay of game technical fouls per game than we already do as there are countless times when a player may take a moment to locate one of the officials or throws it to the official that is farther away by mistake. We don't, however, penalize these situations because there is no real delay of game, which is the activity explicitly prohibited by rule. Were the player to hold the ball in order to prevent the subsequent throw-in so that his coach to relay instructions, the game is delayed requiring the appropriate penalty.

In summary, it is my position that if the act of removing the jersey was intended to automatically be a technical foul, there should be a rule 10-3-11, which would read: A player shall not remove his/her jersey and/or pants/skirt within the visual confines of the playing area. In this case removing said items would be expressly and explicitly prohibited.

And as a final point, the correct answer to the OP's question is that there is no violation of 10-3-6 as this relates to "Player Technical Fouls". A team doesn't have any players until the game starts. The term used throughout the rules and case books are team members. If we argue that removing the jersey is automatically a technical foul, rule 10-4-1(h) would be the applicable rule as the team members would be considered bench personnel until they are 1 of 5 team members legally on the court.