picko wrote:Nothing wrong with Giannis' move based on what I'm seeing. Sets a pivot foot and then takes a single step.
truly wrote:It's not a travel anywhere.Since some people blame the NBA for allowing travelling,here is a video with college,NBA and FIBA refs saying this is legal.
So Giannis establishes a pivot foot [his right foot], then steps thru with his left foot, plants it and lifts the right foot up before releasing the ball (swinging the right [pivot] foot thru just as he releases the ball toward the backboard).
I saw Jokic do similar [for a shot] in the playoffs a year or two ago and thought for sure this was a travel. So I looked up the NBA rule-book and was surprised to find I was mistaken. As your video clearly explains: they can pick up their pivot foot while still holding the ball
provided they release the ball (on either a pass or shot) BEFORE that pivot foot returns to the ground.
Once I learned this, I honestly became surprised that more players don't take advantage of this in the post.
But that's not the part that makes me question if he travelled......
After releasing the ball toward the backboard, he then picks that left foot up to and comes to a jump-stop on both feet [i.e.
that pivot foot has returned to the ground].
If his little pitch toward the backboard was not a shot, can it
actually be considered a pass when it doesn't go to a teammate?
And if not, then he techinically didn't get rid of the ball before his pivot foot returned to the ground.
I mean, if this is legal, what prevents a player [other than the defense, obviously] from running all the way up the court without dribbling at all, but rather making the non-dribbling ball advancement "legal" just by throwing the ball up in the air and catching it again a few meters further on (toss it up again before you've taken more than two steps, repeatedly passing it to yourself like a kid playing catch alone, all the way up the court)?
That too would then be legal, wouldn't it?
This is where I'm fuzzy.
To me, the step-thru with the pivot foot is not at all the question here (as noted above, I've been down that road before and learned it is indeed legal).
It's that
re-plant of the pivot foot (on the jump-stop) BEFORE he's shot it or [technically] passed it.