When does travel occur?

[just another ref]

Originally Posted by JPNY25

Except in that case, an airborne shooter has been fouled. That means, in your judgment, the offensive player was fouled while in the act of shooting. In other words, the foul actually occurs. The judgment is whether or not he was in the act of shooting.

Exactly. Judgment is used to say this was indeed a shot, and the appropriate penalty is enforced. Using the logic from above, how are we to know that this perceived shot was not instead an alley oop pass to a teammate who failed to make an anticipated cut.

In the situations regarding the pass/travel, no violation has occurred because of the player dropping the ball. There is no rules justification to support calling a travel in this situation. Unlike the airborne shooter, there is also no judgment involved in this ruling. Simply by rule, it is not a violation until the player touches the ball again.

Why is this situation different? If there is no teammate nearby to conceivably receive this "pass" then it is logical to judge this as the start of a dribble. A dribble is defined as pushing the ball to the floor, "once or several times."