NBA admits ignoring traveling rule and now changes it

[wanja]

Originally Posted by wanja

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.

Per the old post above, we got a hint back in March that the legal NBA 2 step was coming. Despite the best of intentions, getting the borderline travel calls right is hard. I'm not surprising that the new rule reads in part, "A player who receives the ball while he is progressing or upon completion of a dribble, may take two steps in coming to a stop, passing or shooting the ball.". While it is not surprising, it is a bad move that puts the NBA rule at odds with the travel rule at every other level. An acknowledgment that when there is doubt on traveling, a no call is appropriate would have served the purpose.


Take a look at this Lebron travel video from the NBA NBA Video Rule Book. If Lebron had not taken a "3rd step" would you have called travelling for him taking "2 steps"?