“Ja Morant carries the ball on almost every possession,”

[JN61]

Every players does it, take a look at Kevin Durant when he does his signature crosover.

Out of the high profile players of this era Durant and Giannis are definitely up there. Surprisingly enough guys like LeBron and Westbrook aren't. Their dribbling was always rather basic and not flashy and those fundamentals are one of reasons those players aren't carrying the ball constantly. Compare Westbrook to Irving or Curry who constantly carry the ball on their fancy dribbling, Westbrook is very basic but in generally secure with his dribbling considering the volume of it.

So it really comes down to NBA favouring the flash over substance. Carrying also allows player to make better offensive moves so it's directly helping offensive player. I don't see them start officiating carrying any time soon for this very reason. Durant couldn't get past "anyone" without legal carrying for example.

[gavran]

This was the only play from the last 2 minute report that was labelled "incorrect non-call." Blatant carry.

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Coming from the guy with Jordan Poole as his profile pic. Classic.

Yeah, that invalidates the video. Classicer.

[WHITE_HOT_HEAT]

https://www.basketballnetwork.net/latest-news/donovan-mitchell-agrees-ja-morant-carries-the-ball-on-almost-every-possession-and-confirms-the-old-heads-are-correct-we-all-do-it
IS this true ??? I don't watch much of the Grizzlies basketball during the season , except when they play Denver. Does he carry the ball constantly, every game ???There were some blatant plays in his year play off's when he did that and refs didn't call what would have been an easy calls. In general refs in the NBA are very poor in calling travelling ,carrying and other technical aspects of the game , yet they are very quick to give away technical fouls to the players. I think NBA have to put more effort on ref's education.

One of the most egregious carrying and palming specialist is celebrated as the "GOAT".. MJ ... so yeah.. I don't want hear about this..

I do agree that the Morant clip is insane..

[hauntedcomputer]

Surprisingly enough guys like LeBron and Westbrook aren't. Their dribbling was always rather basic and not flashy and those fundamentals are one of reasons those players aren't carrying the ball constantly. Compare Westbrook to Irving or Curry who constantly carry the ball on their fancy dribbling, Westbrook is very basic but in generally secure with his dribbling considering the volume of it.

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[Harry Garris]

Ja Morant violates every dribbling rule known to man, but it's the NBA, they don't care about that anymore.

And it's better than way. The NBA makes money and is relevant because it's entertaining. In the early days on the NBA the league was much more stringent on ball handling but over time they found that fans enjoyed basketball much more when players were allowed the freedom to do cool stuff like show off fancy handles.

[AbeVigodaLive]

It’s sad that the rules aren’t enforced on the most talented basketball players in the world. Why even have the rule or teach it to the AAU youth if professional players don’t get held to the rules?

I coach youth hoops.

One old-school official decided to call it "by the book."

So he called the opponent's PG for dribbling and walking the ball up the court with nobody around him. The kid was confused. So we took it out of bounds. And he called our kid for carrying simply dribbling up the court. And so the other team got the ball... and you see where this is going...

Both PGs were very confused. Once it was clear that this was this official's pet project, regardless of what it did for the game or the kids' psyches, I ended up just having a bigger kid who dribbled "correctly" bring it up the court to simply keep the game going. Again, this wasn't in traffic or anything. Literally just walking up the court.

Now, you could yell "teach them the right way to dribble!" and while you wouldn't be entirely wrong... context alert... no other official over hundreds of games has ever called the game that way, so in doing so, we'd be putting these kids at a distinct disadvantage in every other game if we forced them to dribble like it was 1977.



[Note: So those who say it makes it really hard to compare stars from different eras... I agree. Basketball guards (and football QBs) across eras are just so hard to discuss.]

[JN61]

Surprisingly enough guys like LeBron and Westbrook aren't. Their dribbling was always rather basic and not flashy and those fundamentals are one of reasons those players aren't carrying the ball constantly. Compare Westbrook to Irving or Curry who constantly carry the ball on their fancy dribbling, Westbrook is very basic but in generally secure with his dribbling considering the volume of it.

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What was not clear what I wrote? Or you don't understand difference between carrying and travel?

[danvato]

This was the only play from the last 2 minute report that was labelled "incorrect non-call." Blatant carry.

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I said everyone does it...then I watched this video and I was like...


Ok so video is so egregious that someone should address this for real

lol, half this thread is people saying 'everybody does it'.

like come on guys, just stop it, take the 30 seconds to actually watch the clip and stop saying everybody does it.

[CobraCommander]

This was the only play from the last 2 minute report that was labelled "incorrect non-call." Blatant carry.

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I said everyone does it...then I watched this video and I was like...


Ok so video is so egregious that someone should address this for real

lol, half this thread is people saying 'everybody does it'.

like come on guys, just stop it, take the 30 seconds to actually watch the clip and stop saying everybody does it.

No one does what ja did in that video...real time I didn’t even notice.

[MotownMadness]

If anyone on the Pistons even attempted to do what Ja did in that video the refs would have went to the replay for 20 mins and decide to eject them just because.

[AbeVigodaLive]

This was the only play from the last 2 minute report that was labelled "incorrect non-call." Blatant carry.

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I said everyone does it...then I watched this video and I was like...


Ok so video is so egregious that someone should address this for real

lol, half this thread is people saying 'everybody does it'.

like come on guys, just stop it, take the 30 seconds to actually watch the clip and stop saying everybody does it.

NBA officials are so upset reading this thread... they're going to call 17 random European big guys for travels on their first step the moment they enter the game next fall.

Oh wait... they already do that.

The first 27 random European big guys...

[danvato]

If anyone on the Pistons even attempted to do what Ja did in that video the refs would have went to the replay for 20 mins and decide to eject them just because.

lol, thats awesome.

[Michael Jordan]

Officials don't call carries, travels on fast break, or travels on stepback enough.

[hauntedcomputer]

What was not clear what I wrote? Or you don't understand difference between carrying and travel?

I do understand, but that wouldn't be funny. Good day to you.

[Ron Swanson]

Between this and the power-whining thread about how Giannis is "officiated", it's a sad, pathetic future for this league when fans can't just accept that these guys are generational talents/players that would be great in any era. I mean yeah, they haven't called the old travel/carry rules in decades now and everyone just accepts it for what it is. Focus more on cracking down on the crap that makes the game unwatchable, like take fouls and flopping. Instead of on, you know, one of the few players that actually plays with an old-school mentality and aggressively attacks the basket instead of sitting behind the 3PT arc all game.

[madmaxmedia]

This is nothing new. MJ may still have been the most frequent traveler I've ever seen though they pretty much never got called, though Giannis does give him a run for his money

Are there any YouTube compilation clips? I’m not disagreeing that he may have, but generally speaking his body control and technique were so on point.

He did a lot less of the ‘gather step followed by extra 2 foot plant’ thing than most players, because power was not really his game.

In general, players are gonna do whatever the refs allow them to get away with.

[madmaxmedia]

Between this and the power-whining thread about how Giannis is "officiated", it's a sad, pathetic future for this league when fans can't just accept that these guys are generational talents/players that would be great in any era. I mean yeah, they haven't called the old travel/carry rules in decades now and everyone just accepts it for what it is. Focus more on cracking down on the crap that makes the game unwatchable, like take fouls and flopping. Instead of on, you know, one of the few players that actually plays with an old-school mentality and aggressively attacks the basket instead of sitting behind the 3PT arc all game.

They are generational talents but the game gets sloppy looking if the refs let them get away with too much. It also detracts from the truly great plays that are completely legal and still amazing.

I don’t blame the players, either generally or any specific guy, they are gonna do whatever they can get away with to score.

[xdrta+]

There's a difference between 'calling the old travel rules' and allowing players to pick up the ball and run 3 or 4 steps. People talk like it's one or the other. Do some people think Morant's play in that clip is fine and should be allowed? That's hard to believe.

[garrick]

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Ronnie Nunn believes this particular play is a travel and he's a pretty well respected albeit retired ref.

Sorry didn't notice it was already posted...

[LAL1947]

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Where is the double dribble? Did it occur prior to what is shown in the clip?

Anyway, I agree Morant is palming and did a travel... although Giannis does this kind of palming more. The Greek's hand sometimes goes fully under the ball. See this video below from 2m 30secs into Q2 of Game 3 of that series (2:31 into the video). He starts off that move by carrying it twice?

Then in addition to the carry, after Giannis runs into Derrick White (which was fine, no foul)... he takes 5 steps in total, Kendrick Perkins style, before dunking the ball. How is this not called for either the carry or for traveling?

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