Rule No. 2: Officials and Their Duties
| I: The Game Officials | II: Duties of the Officials | III: Elastic Power |
| IV: Different Decisions by Officials | V: Time and Place for Decisions |
| VI: Correcting Errors | VII: Duties of Scorers | VIII: Duties of Timers |
a. The game officials shall be a crew chief, referee and umpire. They will be assisted by an official scorer and two trained timers. One timer will operate the game clock and the other will operate the 30-second clock. All officials shall be approved by the Operations Department.
b. The officials shall wear the uniform prescribed by the WNBA.
Section II-Duties of the Officials
a. The officials shall, prior to the start of the game, inspect and approve all equipment, including court, baskets, balls, backboards, timers and scorer's equipment.
b. The officials shall not permit players to play with any type of hand, arm, face, nose, ear, head or neck jewelry.
c. The officials shall not permit any player to wear equipment which, in his/her judgment, is dangerous to other players. Any equipment which is of hard substance (casts, splints, guards and braces) must be padded or foam covered and have no exposed sharp or cutting edge. All the face masks and eye or nose protectors must conform to the contour of the face and have no sharp or protruding edges. Approval is on a game-to-game basis.
d. All equipment used must be appropriate for basketball. Equipment that is unnatural and designed to increase a player's height or reach, or to gain an advantage, shall not be used.
e. The officials must check the three game balls to see that they are properly inflated.
f. The crew chief shall be the official in charge.
g. If a coach desires to discuss a rule or interpretation of a rule prior to the start of a game or between periods, it will be mandatory for the officials to ask the other coach to be present during the discussion. The same procedure shall be followed if the officials wish to discuss a game situation with either coach.
h. The designated official shall toss the ball at the start of the game. The crew chief shall decide whether or not a goal shall count if the officials disagree, and he/she shall decide matters upon which scorers and timers disagree.
i. All officials shall be present during the 20-minute pre-game warm-up period to observe and to review scoring and timing procedures with table personnel. Officials may await the on-court arrival of the first team.
j. Officials must meet with team captains prior to the start of the game.
k. Officials must report any atypical or unique incident to the Operations Department by datagram. Flagrant, punching, fighting fouls or a team's failure to have eight players to begin the game must also be reported.
Section III-Elastic Power
The officials shall have the power to make decisions on any point not specifically covered in the rules. The Operations Department will be advised of all such decisions at the earliest possible moment.
Section IV-Different Decisions By Officials
a. The crew chief shall have the authority to set aside or question decisions regarding a rule interpretation made by either of the other officials.
Section V-Time and Place for Decisions
a. The officials have the power to render decisions for infractions of rules committed inside or outside the boundary lines. This includes periods when the game may be stopped for any reason.
Section VI-Correcting Errors
A. Free Throws
B. Lineup Positions
C. Record Keeping
Section VII-Duties of Scorers
a. The scorers shall record the field goals made, the free throws made and missed and shall keep a running summary of the points scored. They shall record the personal and technical fouls called on each player and shall notify the officials immediately when a sixth personal foul is called on any player. They shall record the timeouts charged to each team, shall notify a team and its coach through an official whenever that team is granted a team charged timeout and shall notify the nearest official when the team is granted a charged timeout in excess of the legal number. In case there is a question about an error in the scoring, the scorer shall check with the crew chief at once to find the discrepancy. If the error cannot be found, the official shall accept the record of the official scorer, unless he/she has knowledge that forces him/her to decide otherwise.
b. It is the primary duty of the trail official to determine whether a field goal attempt shall count, if successful. If he/she does not know, he/she will ask the other officials for assistance. If none of the officials know, the official timer shall be asked. His or her decision will be final.
Exception: Period Ending Score or No-Score in Official's Manual.
c. If the officials disagree as to who caused the ball to go out-of-bounds, a jump ball shall be called between the two players involved.
d. In the event that a violation and foul occur at the same time, the foul will take precedence.
e. Double Foul (See Rule 12-B-Section VI-f).
b. When a personal foul or violation occurs, an official will blow his/her whistle to terminate play. The whistle is the signal for the timer to stop the game clock. If a personal foul has occurred, the official will indicate the number of the offender to the official scorer and the number of free throws, if any, to be attempted.
If a violation has occurred, the official will indicate:
(1) the nature of the
violation by giving the correct signal;
(2) the number of the offender, if applicable; and
(3) the direction in which the ball will be advanced.
c. When a team is entitled to a throw-in, an official shall clearly signal
(1) the act which caused the ball to become dead
(2) the spot of the throw-in
(3) the team entitled to the throw-in, unless it follows a successful or awarded field goal.
d. When a whistle is erroneously sounded, whether the ball is in a possession or non-possession status, it is an inadvertent whistle and shall be interpreted as a suspension-of-play.
e. An official may suspend play for any unusual circumstance.
Officials may correct an error if a rule is inadvertently set aside and results in the following:
(1) A team not shooting a merited free throw.
Exception: If the offensive team scores or shoots earned free throws on the next possession which occurred due to not attempting a merited free throw, the error shall be ignored.
(2) A team shooting an unmerited free throw
(3) Permitting the wrong player to attempt a free throw
a. Officials shall be notified of a possible error at the first dead ball.
b. Errors which occur in the first half must be discovered and the scorer's table notified prior to the officials leaving the floor at the end of the half. The errors must be rectified prior to the start of the second half.
c. Errors which occur in the second half or overtime(s) must be discovered and rectified prior to the end of the period.
d. The ball is not in play on corrected free throw attempt(s). Play is resumed at the same spot and under the same conditions as would have prevailed had the error not been discovered.
e. All play that occurs is to be nullified if the error is discovered within a 30-second time period. The game clock shall be reset to the time that the error occurred.
Exception (1): Acts of unsportsmanlike conduct, and points scored there from, shall not be nullified.
Exception (2): Free throw attempt(s) resulting from a personal foul which is a clear path to the basket, or a flagrant foul-penalty (1).
Note: The game clock shall not be reset in (2) above.
If the first half, second half or overtime(s) begins with jumpers lined up incorrectly, and the error is discovered:
(1) After more than 30 seconds has elapsed, the teams will continue to shoot for that basket.
(2) If 30 seconds or less has elapsed, all play shall be nullified.
Exception: Acts of unsportsmanlike conduct, and points scored therefrom, shall not be nullified.
a. The game clock shall be reset to 20:00 or 5:00, respectively.
b. The 30-second clock shall be reset to 30.
A record keeping error by the official scorer which involves the score, number of personal fouls and/or timeouts may be corrected by the officials at any time prior to the end of the second half. Any such error which occurs in overtime must be corrected prior to the end of that period.
b. The scorers shall keep a record of the names, numbers and positions of the players who are to start the game and of all substitutes who enter the game. When there is an infraction of the rules pertaining to submission of the lineup, substitutions or numbers of players, they shall notify the nearest official immediately if the ball is dead, or as soon as it becomes dead if it is in play when the infraction is
discovered. The scorer shall mark the time at which players are disqualified by
reason of receiving six personal fouls, so that it may be easy to ascertain the order in which the players are eligible to go back into the game in accordance with
Rule 3-Section I.
c. The scorers shall use a horn or other device unlike that used by the officials or timers to signal the officials. This may be used when the ball is dead or in certain specified situations when the ball is in control of a given team. The scorer shall signal the coach on the bench on every personal foul, designating the number of personal fouls a player has, and number of team fouls. NOTE: White paddles-team fouls; Red paddles-personal fouls.
d. When a player is disqualified from the game, or whenever a penalty free throw is being awarded, a buzzer, siren or some other clearly audible sound must be used by the scorer or timer to notify the game officials. It is the duty of the scorekeeper to be certain the officials have acknowledged the sixth personal foul buzzer and the penalty shot buzzer.
e. The scorer shall not signal the officials while the ball is in play, except to notify them of the necessity to correct an error.
f. Should the scorer sound the horn while the ball is in play, it shall be ignored by the players on the court. The officials must use their judgment in stopping play to consult with the scorer's table.
g. Scorers shall record on the scoreboard the number of team fouls up to a total of eight, which will indicate that the team is in a penalty situation.