Was I asleep or was there an actual travel call in the Dallas / Sacramento game last night ?

You didn't dream it. There were actually a few travel calls. Of course they were so obvious the official had to call them. Especially the little tango Bradley did with the ball attempting an outlet. Talk about a white stiff.

As opposed to what color of stiff?

When Bradley became a Maverick, the "locals" were calling him "another white stiff". It goes back to the series of draft picks they made that included Cherokee Parks (a true Hall of Famer :-) )

If your not from DFW, you probably didn't get the reference.

...was probably the first one all year....

I am going to add my two cents worth on travels in the NBA

I have learned a couple of valuable lessons from NBA/WNBA refs

1) if you are refereeing the defense like you are supposed to,(and the NBA officials are some of the best at reffing the defense) you will miss travels. If you like to watch the offense and the guy with the ball you'll never miss a travel but call either miss or mis-call the illegal screens, miss some other fouls by the defense, or miss the most obvious block charges in the world. When a player looks like they are doing something stupid they get called, if you are watching the defense and the offensive player makes a move, if it in'st a play that really looks bad, you might miss a travel.

Me I'd rather miss a few travels in a game than the illegal picks, and charges/blocks, etc that will really cause the problems in the end.

2) The travel rule in the NBA is different

3) If you thought it was a travel but werent sure it, probably wasnt.

k.g.,
i got nothin but respect for these words

I'm sorry, I was expected to call travels when I refereed, along with block/charges, and everything else in the book, and my primary focus was on the defense. And there were only two referees.

There's three referees reffing during a NBA game.

They can use any excuse they want, but the bottom line is that it's not entertaining (read: good television) to call the 30 travels that occur in the average NBA game.

I'll have to disagree with you on this....

Your right, there are three officials on the floor and 10 of the biggest, fastest, best basketball players in the world. When you are refereeing the defense and watching guys like Karl Malone, Tim Duncan, or even little guys like John Stockton the last place that you are going to watch is their feet. Remember most of the NBA plays ( even after they took the illegal Defense away) a fairly tight man to man. Picks are more common in games like that then a spead out zone that is typical of manu high school games, or even college.

When you referee the defense correctly, and watching off ball correctly with those players there are some trade-offs to getting the plays right and one of them that gets sacrificed is a travel. If it doesnt look funny or weird the player may get away with a travel. It looked like a good move. You can't tell me that's not the way its reffed at even the high school level. There are travels all the time that dont get called because they look good, and the same foot movement that looks bad gets called. It happens in college it happens in CYO it happens in every league.

The NBA teaches a to anticiapte plays so not only are you refereeing the immediate defensive player but you have to kow where all defensive players are and what's happening there and where is the play developing. I can tell you from my experiences working with NBA/WNBA players and refs that there is a totally different perspective when you step on the floor with them. I can tell you that travels happen and are missed, oh well we miss alot of them at every level.

The rules are written for their agility and speed.

Kelvin

your first post was great and your second one did an even better job of defending your position! that's one of the first conversations i had with my father after i started going to officiating camps, i.e., got serious about officiating. As a fan of the game, and as someone who played in college, my father understood, excepted, and appreciated that explanation of the lack of travel calls in the NBA.

great post!

Jacob