When did the NBA just stop calling traveling?

[Guest Youth N Asia]

I tried to watch a basketball game the other night. I swore I would try and get back into it if the Pistons could get good again.

 

I haven't been an NBA fan in a few years...but last time I watched they still called traveling when someone took too many steps.

 

When did they stop? I mean it's just blatant now.

[Guest Human Fly]

They never called it on Patrick Ewing who almost always traveled when he made his move in the lane.

[Guest DrTom]

It's still enforced situationally. If you're in your own end of the court trying to bring the ball up, and you travel, it'll get whistled all the time. But if you're running toward the basket for a dunk, you can easily take five steps without dribbling. It began in the mid-80s, when Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan were the showpieces of the new, TV-driven NBA. Individual achievements like dunks began to replace solid team play and fundamentals in terms of importance, and the result is the diluted, bastardized product you see today.

[Guest starvenger]

Aren't travelling calls inversely proportional to a player's star power?

[Guest alkeiper]

Probably, but its been like that forever.

[Guest phoenixrising]

Aren't travelling calls inversely proportional to a player's star power?

ESPN made a big deal about a travelling call called on Jordan earlier this year. It was a big deal actually. When was the last time MJ was called for travelling? And does that ref still have his job? That was something you rarely see happen.

[Guest DrTom]

While announcers during the games never talk about the blatant traveling when it's not called, there are sportswriters who catch it and harp on it. Gregg Easterbrook, best known for his "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" football column on ESPN.com, wrote about the NBA playoffs over the summer. Here's a blurb about the traveling and up-and-down violations that aren't getting called anymore:

In the Spurs-Lakers opening game, second quarter, Kobe drove the lane; took three full steps; jumped into air; came down with both feet; then jumped again for the dunk. Marv Albert cried, "Sensational!" Bill Walton gushed, "The Spurs have no answer for that!" Well, of course the Spurs have no answer for a move that's illegal.

 

With each passing year, it becomes progressively more embarrassing how the NBA tolerates walking ... so long as a dunk results. This year, the league's been openly tolerating up-and-down, too, so long as a dunk results. Maybe that's show biz, but shouldn't the announcers at least mention when plays are, ahem, not legal? NBC showed the replay of the sensational! drive three times and no bobblehead made any comment on the violation.

I think that about says it all.

[Guest Human Fly]

I'm laughing because it's true and because I can picture Walton saying that with his big goofy smile.

[Guest NoCalMike]

The same could be said in the NFL on kickoff/punt returns. I swear on at least 50% of kickoff/punt returns that result in TDs there is blocking in the back going on to start the initial hole. I remember when Vick made a great play agains the SAINTS when he scrambled away and threw a 40 yard td pass, except it was on OBVIOUS hold in plain camera sight that got him the time to make the throw. I have been saying it for years. The rules take a backseat to "magical" plays.

[Guest Mad Dog]

Half of Vick's plays are like that.

[Guest starvenger]

While announcers during the games never talk about the blatant traveling when it's not called, there are sportswriters who catch it and harp on it. Gregg Easterbrook, best known for his "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" football column on ESPN.com, wrote about the NBA playoffs over the summer. Here's a blurb about the traveling and up-and-down violations that aren't getting called anymore:

In the Spurs-Lakers opening game, second quarter, Kobe drove the lane; took three full steps; jumped into air; came down with both feet; then jumped again for the dunk. Marv Albert cried, "Sensational!" Bill Walton gushed, "The Spurs have no answer for that!" Well, of course the Spurs have no answer for a move that's illegal.

 

With each passing year, it becomes progressively more embarrassing how the NBA tolerates walking ... so long as a dunk results. This year, the league's been openly tolerating up-and-down, too, so long as a dunk results. Maybe that's show biz, but shouldn't the announcers at least mention when plays are, ahem, not legal? NBC showed the replay of the sensational! drive three times and no bobblehead made any comment on the violation.

I think that about says it all.

TMQ is my second favourite columnist on Page 2. "Why are you punting?", "Stop me before I blitz again" and (of course) the cheescake photos are my fave bits.

 

But wrt to the commentating team, Walton is an idiot and Albert has become the JR of basketball (getting worse by the show) so to expect them to note something like a blatant travelling non-call on a star is like expecting the Trailblazers not to be high...

[Guest DrTom]

I swear on at least 50% of kickoff/punt returns that result in TDs there is blocking in the back going on to start the initial hole.

I've seen blocking in the back not called, and not just on good returns. I've also seen dreadful calls where the infraction never happened, so I guess it call comes out in the wash. Football officiating has been pretty bad for a few years now (and will continue to be so as long as the NFL treats their officials like part-time scrubs), but the NBA's non-calls on traveling have basically been a league policy since the mid-1980's. It's incompetence vs. an institutional decision.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Think about it though, do you want to watch a game where a good handful of the drives end on a travelling call?

 

I don't see the big deal.

[Guest starvenger]

the big deal is that by doing this you're rewarding the lack of fundamentals. Keep this up and you're left with Slamball...

[Guest PORNFAQ]

Not really. A few extra steps or not, a good defender will still be able to stop you.

 

And they didn't just stop calling travelling altogether, but yes, during the 80's when the NBA's biggest names were on the court, you wouldn't hardly hear a whistle against them and they took advantage. Who wouldn't? It's no secret that MJ's been doing it for years and it'll continue on with the NBA's new marquee players like Kobe and the like. Just the way it is.

 

But believe me if Devean George takes 3 steps to the hole, he's getting a whistle.

[Guest Polish_Rifle]

Traveling calls went out of fashion when David Stern learned that Shaq could not pivot and do any moves to the basket without taking 3 steps and a couple of questionable jump stops.

[moral suasion 0]

They stopped calling carries and worse yet, moving screens as well.

 

When I played ball, setting your feet on a pick was a fundamental part of basketball. Now players move and just trip eachother up and the refs do nothing.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

I don't blame the players for taking advantage of it. I blame the league for allowing it in the first place.