ESPN has an article (
NBA head of officials seeks to clarify traveling rule - ESPN ) quoting NBA VP of referee operations Joe Borgia promoting legalization of a second step. The second step issue has bugged me for a while. While its easy to dismiss coaches who say "he only took 2 steps", in practice its much more difficult to adjudicate.
Legally a player can in a continuous motion a) take a first step before completing a dribble or to establish a pivot (e.g. after receiving a pass airborne) and b) then take another step. In practice, it is often a fine line between the latter step being legal or a travel. My rule of thumb has been that if the player is in motion and takes 2 steps, I'm passing on the fine distinction and not calling a violation. However, if the player comes to a stop before the 2 steps then there is clearly a violation.