[JetMetFan]

Originally Posted by #olderthanilook

I've got a bit of a theory as to why many traveling violations are not called - at any level:

I start by "officiating the defense" in nearly every situation. If guys are doing this (watching for that subtle hand check and legal guarding position), official's eyes may miss some movements by the offensive player. At least, I know that I can't possibly watch the offensive player's pivot while at the same time keeping an eye on the defender's feet AND hands. It all happens so quickly. I try to catch all I can, but it's not easy. Hopefully, the C has a travel while I as the L has block/charge and hold/hand check stuff.

I can see the problem if a player is in the post. There's a lot going on and I've had multilple assignors/supervisors tell me "I'd rather you not miss anything but if you're going to miss something, miss the violation as opposed to the foul." But in the clips of Austin Rivers at the start of this well-worn thread he was more than 20 feet from the hoop and it's not as though the defender was up in his face. There really isn't much else to look at other than the start of Rivers' move.