Well, which NBA rule states that a player is allowed 2 steps even without dribbling the ball? Can you quote that rule?
I never actually said it was a rule. I just said it was allowed.
You've never seen a fast break where a player catches the ball on the break and jams it home or lays it in after taking two steps without taking a single dribble?
Or how about when Rondo catches a pass on the break and does his fake behind the back pass, while taking two steps and either a.) passes the ball or b.) puts up a shot?
Refs allow these steps and they also allow players to take a step after they have established a pivot in the post. (Sometimes they call it a travel, sometimes not.)
How is it allowed if it isn't a rule? The game has rules, refs don't have the discretionary power of making them up as the game goes.
I can't stress enough I don't like to argue about "steps" because I've found out that's a very confusing term. I think people are often talking about different things when they refer "steps" - a feeling reinforced by the fact that some people talk about "half-steps", something I can't figure what it can be.
Refs make mistakes all the time. NBA refs very rarely will make a call on a travel violation if a player doesn't get much benefit of it - say, if he has an open lane to the basket in a fastbreak and walks a bit to make a more powerful dun, or if he's bringing up the ball after the inbound pass and moves his pivot before releasing the ball, etc. I don't have much of a problem with it; it's always been that way, it's equal for everybody, it doesn't affect the game at all...
NBA refs generally only call travels when they're too egregious or when the player committing the violation takes advantage of it. They also have practices that violate the letter of the rule: e.g. by allowing players to lift his pivot before releasing the ball - but, again, that's the way it's always been, so I don't have much of a problem with this.
Most of the true mistakes they make are in good faith and a large majority come from situations where players catch passes on the run or catch their dribbles - it's very difficult to define the pivot foot (in the past I officiated a couple of 5x5 scrimmages with pro players - not competitive games and the players were very far from being at the NBA level - and I struggled with this, so I can only imagine how difficult it can be for those guys) or from jump-stops where players don't land on their both feet simultaneously. NBA refs are very liberal in these aspects, in close plays they generally let it go.
In this particular play from LeBron the violation was easy to spot, he basically galloped into the jump-stop and he clearly had his dribble picked when he had his right foot on the floor - so the refs had to call it.
Anyway, to sum it up: situations where the player doesn't gain advantage; situations where it's difficult for the refs to define the pivot foot or to see a badly executed jump-stop; and, of course, situations where they just miss it - plenty of travel violations that go uncalled.
Again, the NBA rules are identical to the NCAA rules and the travel violations are called more or less the same way - NBA refs just give the benefit of the doubt to the offensive player.
In theory players could hop all over the court while maintaining their dribble and it wouldn't be considered a violation.
Well, of course, as long as the player keep their dribble, there can't be a travel violation. That's in the rules.
PS - The VladRad dunk is an obvious travel, what's the doubt? In the NBA that kind of play (travelling before an open dunk) is very rarely called. But it's a travel and the same footwork in another situation would very probably be called.
Topic: The NBA wants Lebron to travel more (Read 20765 times)