scenario: a guy steals the ball and is on his way to a breakaway layup, but there is a defender running him down from behind looking to stop his layup with a block or hard foul. The guy with the ball picks up his dribble and takes two steps but pauses on his second step, he's just standing there on one foot, the defender flys by and he lays it in. This is not a violation to just stand there on one foot (for less than 3 seconds) right? As long as the other foot doesn't touch the floor. I got in an argument over this after I did it the other day, I said mabye I was just in the middle of a slow jump.

As long as you don't put the pivot back down, it's legal.

It's known as the "Will the real Meadow Lark Lemon please stand up" play. Nothing illegal. Except the defender either laughs at himself or there WILL be a foul on the next play. By the way, this play only works once.

....provided that both feet were off the floor when the dribble was picked up, which they very often are not.

thanks, I just wanted to be sure.