Once a player has used his/her dribble, if they lose control of the ball, can they always pick it up again, even if they can't dribble again? For example, player makes move to the basket. He pick up his dribble and A)as he headfakes toward hoop, ball slips from his hand up into the air, or B)he pivots and just accidentally drops the ball. In these two cases, can he retrive the ball without a violation? I believe he can, but in pickup games, most players always call either travel or double dribble.

JLC,
Yup, in both cases, the player may legally retrieve the ball, but will still get wrongly called for a travel 75% of the time.
mick

I agree, on both counts (i.e., that it often gets called a violation). Similarly, I often see players afraid to dribble the ball after a pass has bounced off their hands to the floor and they then secure the ball. And with good reason: I frequently see officials call a "double dribble" violation when the player tries to dribble. Have even had partners call it right in front of me, when I had a great look at it and correctly passed on blowing my whistle. I guess those situations fall under the category of, "If it 'looked' bad or unusual, it must have been illegal."