It's a travel. The key thing to look at is WHEN he picked up the ball. He dribbled, held the ball (thereby establishing his right foot as the pivot foot), steps back, and then lifts his pivot foot. TRAVEL. Most players take a dribble and are in the process of gathering the ball when they step back (establishing the pivot foot) and then move their other foot back.
i think most would agree that the traveling call (legit or not) was a makeup call. without the blown 24 second call, wade gets away with this move 99 times out of 100 because he's a superstar.
he stopped his dribble when he stepped in..put both hands on the ball..thus his right foot was his pivot. he then picked up his right foot with the step back move..and landed on his left...travel.
You're only allowed 2 steps if you're picking up the ball in stride if you pick up the ball in the 3 point position you don't get two steps. It was a travel plain and simple and the tripping call on LeBron was a correct call too. For all of the tin foil hat conspiracy theorist out there I have to ask? What reasoning would Stern have for trying to send two small market teams that lack star power to the finals?
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7nrFRnP_vcs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> I didnt like the call, but if anything i think it was a delayed whistle...perhaps on the dribble handoff Wade did take 2 steps before the pump fake attempt. I dont know if the 2 steps constitute as just gathering the ball or established possesion.. Thought it was bad call... Here is a very similar play by one Tracy McGrady... <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Mk0wq4TbPYc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The hesitation is something I've maybe never seen before. Surprised they make that call, but to me, it was a travel.
THIS. He picked up the dribble, established his right foot as pivot, then moved the pivot foot again to get behind 3 point line. That is a travel. This was a good call by the refs. That 24-sec violation on the other end was NOT.
I agree seeing it in a slo-mo GIF that it was a travel....two hands on the ball, hopped back. Not sure how a ref can see that in real time at the end of a playoff game, but perhaps they are just that good. ha When I saw it real time in high definition, it didn't look like a travel to me.
*SIGH* 8 pages worth of travelling discussion, and unless I'm mistaken, not a single reference to the actual NBA rules. Come on, y'all. (Although props to the guy who referenced the college rules that has pretty much the same rule.) http://mediacentral.nba.com/media/mediacentral/Official-NBA-Rule-Book.pdf As you can see, if you're moving with a dribble, you're allowed two steps after gathering your dribble. So the people saying Wade traveled because he established his right foot as his pivot foot on the stepback and then moved it are flat wrong. Some people claim he lifted his pivot foot on the pump fake, I can't say for sure one way of the other because of replay quality, but I don't believe that is what was called. I'm pretty sure the call stems from this part of the rule. "A progressing player who jumps off one foot on the first step may land with both feet simultaneously for the second step. In this situation, the player may not pivot with either foot and if one or both feet leave the floor the ball must be released before either returns to the floor." Wade is a progressing player and here he jumps off of one foot. The problem is that his feet land at separate times, thus counting for a second and third step, rather than just a second step had they landed simultaneously. It was a travel.
The stepback in general ws not a travel. The entire play needs to be shown when he 1st catches the ball off the handoff, that's where he travels. He takes the handoff and takes 2 1/2 steps comes to a stop and pivots. Travel ALL DAY. They call it in college but not the NBA. I blame Reggie Miller and Allan Houston.
The key is when the pivot foot is established. Once established, if you move your pivot before the ball leaves your hand, this is by rule what travel is. Wade took one bounce of the ball and planted his right foot forward, then he picked up the ball, with both hands, while his left foot is still in the air. This is the exact moment he established his right foot as the pivot. The awkwardness of the move is that his left foot never landed during all the movement until he moved it back outside the three point line. It was not a travel yet the moment he picked up his pivot foot (right). It became a travel when he landed his right foot back behind the three point line when the ball was still in his hands. If he had landed his left foot back behind the three point line before he used his left hand to garner the ball he would have established his left foot as pivot instead, only then would he have completed a hack of a step back move legally. That is what the Harden gif is. The TMac gif is completely different, not even close to travel.
Wade was moving, he's allowed 2 steps after that. He took more than 2 though. And I'm not asserting a conspiracy, but the conspiracy would be that had the Heat won last night, they'd like finish off the Pacers at home in Game 5 and the NBA would have a full week off with no playoff games and that's not good for business. The NBA definitely wants these series to go longer and they can assume the Heat will win the series regardless. But I don't think last night's game was rigged.
"b. 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. " Wade stopped his progression and completed his dribble when he used both hands to gather the ball, technically came to a stop already. That was the moment the pivot is established. The two steps mentioned in (b) does not apply here. Again, the key is the pivot. I hope we all understand no player can move the pivot foot without being called a travel.
Please post the rule. I have always understood that the "2 steps" is for a player on the move forward, picking up the dribble and continue the steps naturally. If you dribble, stop, and pick up the ball, you can only move one foot after that. Am I right? Can you show me the rule you claim?
I've always felt that the 2-step rule, at least the spirit of it, is an allowance for a player to naturally stop after progressing with dribbling. The two steps are supposed to be in the direction of the progression, not backward or sideway. In fact, the so-called Euro Step is a stretched use of the rule. I remember Ginobili had a controversial move where he used the 2-step backward. I can't find that video now.
After watching both parts and reading Geaux's posted rules, I've concluded they were both travels. On the hand-off, he touches the ball in mid-stride, plants the right foot, and then squares up at the 3-pt line by planting his left foot and then his right foot in quick sucession -- but not simultaneously. If he had hopped to that spot and landed with both feet, it would have counted as one step and not been a travel. However, if he had done that (to be utterly pedantic) he would not be allowed to pivot on either foot, making the way he started his dribble from there by stepping before dribbling also a travel. And then, after he picks up his dribble, I agree with the pro-travel camp that he established his right foot as the pivot and would have had to hop to a two-foot landing to make his step-back legal. But, as I said before, they dance all over the place in the NBA with no calls. I bet there's 20 plays in every game that I could find multiple technical travels on if I looked this hard at each of them. I'm all for the call because it was multiple travel violations after all, but there is something arbitrary about enforcement.
You are misunderstanding the rules. As you quoted, a player that is moving is allowed 2 steps after he completes his dribble. His pivot foot is not established until he takes those steps. Otherwise upon completion of dribble, whatever foot is on the ground would be the pivot foot, giving you zero steps after picking up your dribble. That's not how the rule works. Wade was moving, he picked up his dribble and is thus allowed two steps, then he took 3 steps. (B) most definitely applies on this play because Wade was a progressing player. The pivot foot is NOT the foot that's on the floor at the moment you pick up your dribble. That foot is the first step. "The second step occurs after the first step when the other foot touches the floor, or both feet touch the floor simultaneously."
IMO, Wade came to a stop before hopping behind the 3pt line. In one motion, I think he'd have been okay, but he didn't.
You're definitely correct about that being the spirit of the rule. I don't believe the NBA intended for players to be moving around in different directions after they pick up their dribble, but they don't really have any rules that specifically address the direction you're going, so this rule pretty much has to apply.
