By that argument, we should leave our whistles in our pockets and pull them out only in the event of a fight.

If many/most referees can see the wiggle of the foot, then it should be called. And yes, it can be seen. It is simply lazy to not call it if you see it.

Even though this is not possible, it should be our goal to see it all, not just the blatantly obvious.



The call is justified if it is confirmed by the replay, which apparently it was in this case. As for "passing on" 8 other calls, the solution is simple.
Don't do that, either.

Closer Is Not Always Better ...
 

Which can often be accomplished by an official backing up a few steps to open up his field of view.

I'm enjoying the debate guys. Thanks for the replies. For my part, I'm not a ref. That said, I noticed the second step in the long shot, then it was confirmed in the replay. I was struck by the way the announcers were discussing whether Kidd was behind the line and not the fact that he took steps to get the shot off.

As far as the "2-inch wiggle", had the the replay shown that his foot was 1/4" over the three point line, that shot would have been a two. Inches count.

Lesson Learned ...
 

According to your Forum name, I'm sure that you already know something that my junior high school shop teacher, Mr. Klimkowski, taught us about 45 years ago, "Measure twice. Cut once".

Yes, inches count, but lines are always more easily enforced (by their very nature) than pivot feet and short steps when a player is constantly moving on the feet. Traveling isn't nearly as important to the powers-that-be as monitoring the three point line; otherwise travels would be subject to replay review.

Multitasking is one thing. To make this call you're either A) expecting the referee to have at least 4 eyeballs capable of independent motion or B) be looking for the 2-inch wobble at the expense of missing a foul/no-foul call that is much more likely to be needed. You are not failing to multitask if your eyes are on the most probable call and not 78 inches lower - you are simply human and prioritizing your responsibilities.

Assuming it's a 2 inch wobble, you're right. It's easy to miss, but higher level officials should catch it fairly often.

If it's a side step that actually creates distance from a defender, then it should caught more often than missed. Otherwise, anytime there's a defender nearby, we'd miss 100% of the travels.

I was able to find the game and view it again. Kidd actually sidesteps to the right to try to create contact with the defender. The ref is to Kidd's left in what looks like perfect position to me, maybe 15 feet away, but I can see how he could have been concentrating on the potential foul. Hard to tell if he shifts his gaze to the feet, but he does raise his hand to signal a three attempt.

I can post a clip somewhere if anyone is interested...

If you could post the clip it'd be nice...if you can't, then you can give me a copy of the clip and I can post it on my YouTube account.

I'd like to see the clip, so I find it hard to comment definitively on this, but it seems to me that if you're concentrating on 2 v 3, you're watching the feet and should be able to pick up a travel.

Jason Kidd travel, Part Deux. He did it again yesterday, same scenario, this time it was much more obvious, and again it was not called. Kidd took two full steps to draw a charge on an in-flight Wade. Van Gundy actually called the travel during the replay, and said that he thought traveling (and any other potential violation) should be reviewable along with the two/three question. It does seem silly that while they were checking to see if the shot was a two or a three, the could plainly see that Kidd took steps to get there, yet they can't do anything about it...

Kinda like LeBron catching the ball outside the 3-point arc in the final minute yesterday and landing. Then, he hops with both feet, landing sort of to the side, and then travels AGAIN and finally puts the ball to the floor. Crazy.

That was wasn't obvious in real time...no one saw that in real time. On this play, Wade was going to foul Kidd whether he super technically traveled or not.

The last thing in the world we need to have is reviewable traveling calls.