kobe's travelling was a "superstar call" - (yao's)

my roomate (laker fan) could not believe the call and he call it terrible but on the reply he saw it and then said "there is no way that they should call that this late in the game" and i tell him "so what just throw the rules away with under a minute left?" the guy hop step, dragged his pivot foot and then switched his pivot foot.

the best part of the whole scenario and it gave me a better look into the persona of kobe bryant was when he turned to the official who called it he told the official "what were you thinking?!" you could see it on the espnhd feed. it was the way he said it like the ref was a nobody standing in his way of doing something.

 

First, I would like to say, I'm sorry. I know how having a Laker fan roommate is.

Second, that's how most players usually think of the refs, most just don't say it like that.

lol good one.

 

I'm amazed the called travelling at all. I've seen so many NBA plays where the players are blatantly travevelling or carrying the ball and there is no call.

As other posters there has long been a tradition of NBA refs swallowing the whistle for superstars and late in the game. On a lot of Michael Jordan's drives he can be seen carrying the ball and as much as I hate to admit even Dream would get away with alternating his pivot foot every now and then. Its an ugly fact of basketball that the NBA wants to see great athletes do spectacular things and as such are going to let them get away with stuff like travelling.

Hopefully though this is a sign of things changing.

 

That call was going to be made no matter what. If he had barely traveled I think he would have gotten away with it but he traveled and then traveled again all in the same motion.

 

IMO Travel calls are way up this year, and superstars are getting called for them. I think this is a good thing.

 

That is right, cozs there is no super star treat in FIBA.

 

Kobe's reaction to call cracked me up. Basically he was saying, "Yep, it was a travel, but the refs shouldn't have called it because it was late in OT." It would be different if it was a close call, but it was a clear travel. The only person Kobe should be pis*ed at is Kobe. It's hard to blame a guy who scored 53 for the loss, but that was a very bone-headed play. The tarvel was as bad as incredibly good the three was that he hit to tie the game. He had to know there was a decent chance the Rox would trap him and try to force him to pass the ball. So sweet!

 

I am afraid I would just the opposite problem. I have such disdain for that egotistical hotdog that I don't think I could be very objective. That's why it makes the call that much more enjoyable. Hatred for the Lakers and their whiney, jerk stars has always run deep with me!

 

I posted this in another thread but that travel was just so blatant. I mean, how can you just ignore this. It isn't like he just traveled once, there was a series of travels. I have never seen such a great player have this kind of lapse in fundamentals at such a crucial moment. But I ain't complaining.

 

aint basketball a game with RULES?

 

Everyone in the building and in front of the TV knew he traveled, but the question was refs rarely called in those situation, especially to a guy with Kobe's status. If every traveling violation is called, the game will be played for 5+ hours.

 

You're right. Live, I saw the 2nd travel, but not the 1st. That was terrible. If that's not ordinarly called, that's a travesty.

 

I dunno, man, that travel was pretty egregious. He kind of hopped over the halfcourt line. That sort of thing is very noticeable. Especially so for NBA Refs trained to watch for that sort of thing.

Ahh, redundancy...

 

Who cares about the fact that it was in OT or that it was Kobe? Anyone that has a problem with the call is just a Laker homer. HE TOOK FIVE STEPS! The first violation occurred because of the jump-stop. Then he took two more steps until he finally established a pivot foot. I wonder how often he does this and gets away with it. Like Rafer said, he "could've been arrested for jaywalking".

 

deserves to be fined for that.

 

the jumpstop was questionable (just barely a travel, maybe. i've seen worse jump stops not called), but i bet if he only did his jumpstop, and then did not do the pivot afterwards, where he dragged/shuffled the pivot foot (right foot), i wouldn't have been surprised if the ref lets that go with no call.

but the combo of the questionable jumpstop plus the right pivot foot shuffle was just too much for grillo to let go. he had to make that call. if the travelling was more blatant, then it's an easy call. but the two things kobe did, you see this stuff let go all the time (when done separately), so it took some balls of steel for grillo to call it. at game speed, too, on the lakers home floor at that. huge call.

looking at it again, it looks like the reason he picks up his right pivot foot is he wanted to pass to yao's man, but then prolly saw it was kwame (or turiaf?) that yao left open, and so kobe thought "oh sh!!! what am i doing? kwame sucks!!!" and changed his mind. awesome work by yao, great call by gundy.

 

looking at the gif it was a heads up play by the ref. he was looking at kobe's feet the entire team as he say the double team coming, maybe he was looking to make sure the trap did not result in a backcourt violation, but if yao didnt come over to trap and even if kobe pulled the same move i dont think it would have been called since the refs has no reason to look at kobe's feet at half court when there is just one defender coming at him.

 

The refs have no reason to look at ballhandler's feet?!?

 

Okay, time for me to defend Kobe Bryant.
YES, his argument was dumb, but I can understand where it came from. He had just got called for a foul he felt he didn't commit that gave T-Mac 3 FT (all of which he made). He felt that Yao nudged him into T-Mac, and that shouldn't have been a foul on him. So he was already upset when this happened -- a travel call in the end of OT, a call that normally wouldn't have been made. I just think that pushed Kobe in the wrong way after what he felt was such a bad call before; I can understand his being upset with it. However, the travel was RIDICULOUSLY obvious, and the ref HAD to call it. Also, Gilbert Areans rules.

 

What's hilarious about this is that on the Yao screen, Kobe flailed wildly trying to get an offensive foul call on Yao. The combination of Kobe's flailing, Yao's screen knocking Kobe off balance, and Kobe's momentum, all ended up with Kobe knocking and fouling T-Mac on the trey.

Kobe keeps getting punished for flopping. First he gets the suspensions, then the fines, and this time his flop ends up fouling another player LOLOLOL.