What is a TRAVEL in the NBA?

[sp6r=underrated]

Pretty sure it's been said but I'm going to repeat it anyway.

Like any other rule, it's what the refs want it to be. Their level of subjectivity = control/manipulation.

Officials can't make a team win but they can control momentum in a big & subtle way.

VIP's like Giannis are allowed frequent flyer miles, while others ride coach. Flashy plays at the rim = entertainment, they would never affect that by calling the extra step or 2.

Catering to stars = catering to ratings = catering to revenue

It's more entertainment than true competition.

I disagree with you that non-enforcement of carry rules and the joke that is gathering makes basketball akin to entertainment rather than sports. I also think you exxagerate star calls. giannis doesn't get away with much more than other players.

But you're right the NBA rulebook is designed to give fans the plays they want.

American sports fans have made extremely clear they love watching super athletic players face up and attack the hoop. That is bar none the style of basketball that is most appealing to the median basketball fan. By and large Americans really don't watch basketball for intricate passing plays, complicated zone defenses. They want a 1-1 game with tons of dunks and layups.

And the NBA has designed the rulebooks to make that style of play work. The definition of gathering has been so expanded that the concept is basically meaningless beyond offensive player gets to screw around a bit with no risk of travel being called. Carrying is a non-violation.

As a result facing up and attacking the hoop works a lot. And really most of the people in this thread complaining about it would hate what basketball would look like if you'd actually enforced carrying and narrowed gathering. Offenses would be tons of little passes to set up jump shots. Most of the people on this forum would stop watching hoops

We, and I include myself, want pick and roll spam. We want crazy attacks of the hoop. We want absurd dunks.

[sp6r=underrated]

Short answer;

Depends who you are.

And that is the problem.

This is insane but I really feel like fans overplay star calls to complain players they hate. Lebron's handle is no less egregious than most players.

The NBA has decided not to enforce this rule. If American fans dislike it they can watch a lot of other basketball leagues. I was hanging out with my buddy a college hoops nut. They enforce travel rules more aggresively in the NCAA. watch that if you want to see the rule called.

[sp6r=underrated]

Gather, one, two shot. Legal. Way they call travel has changed. Get over it already.

In my mind, the bigger problem is a failure to teach fans the rule change.
It's not even an NBA thing. FIBA added "step zero" around the same time the NBA clarified gather step rules. I remember refs explaining it to team captains at the start of the season even in recreational basketball leagues.

There are still plenty of travels that refs miss, but it's rarely egregious as fans think when they're counting steps during the gather.

The problem is "gather" is basically a joke concept in the NBA. It can't be explained objectively because there is no objective definition beyond we want to make it easy for players to face up and attack.

You can explain a 24 second violation or a 3 second rule or the block/charge distinction. But gathering, which I like because it makes games more enjoyable to watch, is basically we want the face up game to dominate so we're going to allow you to walk for a spell under the concept of "gathering"

[JRoy]

Short answer;

Depends who you are.

And that is the problem.

This is insane but I really feel like fans overplay star calls to complain players they hate. Lebron's handle is no less egregious than most players.

The NBA has decided not to enforce this rule. If American fans dislike it they can watch a lot of other basketball leagues. I was hanging out with my buddy a college hoops nut. They enforce travel rules more aggresively in the NCAA. watch that if you want to see the rule called.

I want to see the same calls for everyone. Where the game is decided by the skill of the competition, not by referees that selectively enforce the supposed rules.

[sp6r=underrated]

This is insane but I really feel like fans overplay star calls to complain players they hate. Lebron's handle is no less egregious than most players.

The NBA has decided not to enforce this rule. If American fans dislike it they can watch a lot of other basketball leagues. I was hanging out with my buddy a college hoops nut. They enforce travel rules more aggresively in the NCAA. watch that if you want to see the rule called.

I want to see the same calls for everyone. Where the game is not decided by the skill of the competition, not by referees that selectively enforce the supposed rules.

Lebron's been in the NBA 2 decades plus. You could make a hour video of him both benefiting from calls and getting screwed over. Both his haters and fans could have videos that prove their point of view.

The star system in the NBA is really over played by fans.

[sp6r=underrated]

I was watching this live and wondered why no one, commentators, players, refs!, made a big deal about it. Felt like I was taking crazy pills!

Same. I'm pretty much the last guy on earth to complain about travels not getting called in the NBA, but I did a spit take watching that. It's one thing to pick up on the gather so you get that semi-third step, but that was like a comedy skit. He picked up his dribble outside the 3-point line.

That was a gather step on the first. So he went gather one two. What the refs look for is when the ball is in two hands or cradled in the elbow and frozen. When it is just in one hand they don't count it as gathered because of the hesitation move.

This is absurd and it shows the absurdity of "gathering" as a concept.

The refs didn't call anything there because the NBA wants players to be able to do theatrical dunks on unconstested plays. If the NBA rigorously enforced rules on plays like that offensive players would be much more likely to do boring layups which fans, myself included, don't want.

I'm fine with that. If the defender isn't contesting no reason to call anything but if that's not a travel, traveling doesn't exist anymore.

[SweaterBae]

The NBA snuck "the gather" into the traveling rules a few years ago. They get away with **** on the court these days that my 6th grade gym teacher wouldn't tolerate.

[Lockdown504090]

The NBA snuck "the gather" into the traveling rules a few years ago. They get away with **** on the court these days that my 6th grade gym teacher wouldn't tolerate.

Gather step has been in the nba for minimum 15 years because that’s how long I’ve followed the rules very closely, fiba has it as well too, players just don’t use it as well because there isn’t space to do so.

[thinktank]

The problem is it’s actually “up and down”.

You can’t hop on the same foot. It’s just BS that they allow it.

[SweaterBae]

The NBA snuck "the gather" into the traveling rules a few years ago. They get away with **** on the court these days that my 6th grade gym teacher wouldn't tolerate.

Gather step has been in the nba for minimum 15 years because that’s how long I’ve followed the rules very closely, fiba has it as well too, players just don’t use it as well because there isn’t space to do so.

Cool. https://official.nba.com/new-language-in-nba-rule-book-regarding-traveling-violations/

[SNPA]

Some of ya’ll need to accept that NBA players have evolved in the last twenty years and can now dribble one time between half court and the basket. This isn’t your great grandpas plumber anymore. Sure, it might look like five steps but that’s just the gather step, or two…or three. Modern players are so athletic they can take three steps while gathering.

[Lockdown504090]

The NBA snuck "the gather" into the traveling rules a few years ago. They get away with **** on the court these days that my 6th grade gym teacher wouldn't tolerate.

Gather step has been in the nba for minimum 15 years because that’s how long I’ve followed the rules very closely, fiba has it as well too, players just don’t use it as well because there isn’t space to do so.

Cool. https://official.nba.com/new-language-in-nba-rule-book-regarding-traveling-violations/

They just added in that concrete language a few years ago, it’s been taught like this for as long as I’ve known the rules. You can go back and even see the lebron missed game winning layup against Washington in 18 I think it was for an example that this was the rule before. A lot of plays you’ll think of as a travel make sense when you understand the gather . The only level that doesn’t use it is federation, which still governs some high school basketball. That’s what fans grew up on and why there’s so much confusion. It’s the same thing as the step through, eurostep…

put it this way, if gather steps wasn’t allowed it would be extremely difficult to do a spin gather, and a lot of them are called in high school for travelling and confused as to why.

[Loneshot]

I know the sidestep and other moves have been adopted into accepted basketball circles the last decade plus.

But it seems like we've allowed so many extra steps added to NBA moves that it's hard to ascertain what's even supposed to be legal.

Not picking on Desmond Bane (one of my favorite NBA Players right now), but this is clearly a travel, right?

Are my middle aged eyes failing me?
He picks up the ball and takes 3+ steps before shooting.

Missed call?
Or legal basketball move?

Read on Twitter

I only see two steps taken. Which is allowed. If you're looking at the step as Bane gathers into the step back, that is not a travel. Players just move so fast it's hard for the eye to catch if you're not use to seeing these moves.

[SNPA]

I know the sidestep and other moves have been adopted into accepted basketball circles the last decade plus.

But it seems like we've allowed so many extra steps added to NBA moves that it's hard to ascertain what's even supposed to be legal.

Not picking on Desmond Bane (one of my favorite NBA Players right now), but this is clearly a travel, right?

Are my middle aged eyes failing me?
He picks up the ball and takes 3+ steps before shooting.

Missed call?
Or legal basketball move?

Read on Twitter

I only see two steps taken. Which is allowed. If you're looking at the step as Bane gathers into the step back, that is not a travel. Players just move so fast it's hard for the eye to catch if you're not use to seeing these moves.

The last time the ball touched the ground his right foot is on the ground. Then his left foot. Then his right foot again. Then left foot and he shoots. There’s that quick first stutter step, that makes it a travel.

[Whole Truth]

Short answer;

Depends who you are.

And that is the problem.

This is insane but I really feel like fans overplay star calls to complain players they hate. Lebron's handle is no less egregious than most players.

The NBA has decided not to enforce this rule. If American fans dislike it they can watch a lot of other basketball leagues. I was hanging out with my buddy a college hoops nut. They enforce travel rules more aggresively in the NCAA. watch that if you want to see the rule called.

In the age of the 3 ball, that simple obvious non call, is a potential 6pt swing.

You agree that it's done for a more exciting brand of ball but what it allows is for them to also control a games momentum. They will allow that obvious walk for lebron but call a next player for just shuffling their feet just a bit, which they do. Subjective & selective application of the rule = absolute control of the games momentum.

Basically if they allow that walk by Lebron to make the product more watchable, then why do you think they call a next player for shuffling his feet just a bit ?

Why do you think Gobert is allowed to set moving picks all game but they will call the other teams big man for a less obvious moving pick in crunch time ? etc...

What's the point of having rules if they're not equally enforced ?

= Control

[Slimjimzv]

The only travel left in the game is what teams complain about on a back to back.

[CobraCommander]

Short answer;

Depends who you are.

And that is the problem.

That's the answer

This is the way

[CobraCommander]

This is insane but I really feel like fans overplay star calls to complain players they hate. Lebron's handle is no less egregious than most players.

The NBA has decided not to enforce this rule. If American fans dislike it they can watch a lot of other basketball leagues. I was hanging out with my buddy a college hoops nut. They enforce travel rules more aggresively in the NCAA. watch that if you want to see the rule called.

In the age of the 3 ball, that simple obvious non call, is a potential 6pt swing.

You agree that it's done for a more exciting brand of ball but what it allows is for them to also control a games momentum. They will allow that obvious walk for lebron but call a next player for just shuffling their feet just a bit, which they do. Subjective & selective application of the rule = absolute control of the games momentum.

Basically if they allow that walk by Lebron to make the product more watchable, then why do you think they call a next player for shuffling his feet just a bit ?

Why do you think Gobert is allowed to set moving picks all game but they will call the other teams big man for a less obvious moving pick in crunch time ? etc...

What's the point of having rules if they're not equally enforced ?

= Control

I’m surprised the ref didn’t give him a tech for complaining about Lebron James

[meekrab]

It's mostly a travel when you catch the ball and take a step without dribbling at the 3 point line. Despite the fact that's legal in the post.

[KMartsCrew]

So this s*** just randomly popped into my Instagram feed today...

Not only is this garbage allowed, but you got teams proudly posting it as if it were some sort of crazy move worthy of highlighting. This league has become an absolute joke.

I'm sure you'll get people in here defending how the language of the rule now somehow leaves room for this kind of garbage to be interpreted as a legal move-- I don't care. Whether the league, in their clownish quest for video game scores, made garbage like this "legal" or just flat out refuses to enforce fundamentally basic basketball rules, It's still not right, outrageously so.

You can call this whatever you want, but not basketball, this is not basketball in my book.