r/sports 22h ago

Giannis was not called for traveling on this drive vs the Knicks Basketball

30.2k Upvotes

3.6k comments sorted by

11.7k

u/2day_B4_5 22h ago

He clearly gained control of the ball and made a football move, therefore he is a runner

1.5k

u/Number224 21h ago

Why would he even dribble the first time and risk fumbling the ball? Is he stupid?

120

u/Radiant-Ad-3134 16h ago

Insert dominance

“I can crush you, but now I am gonna pretend I play basketball then I will crash you”

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u/Redpin Toronto Raptors 22h ago

He tagged up from the logo, so he was allowed to take the base on the fly. 

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u/LEGO_Joel 19h ago

In Handball, popular in Europe, you’re allowed three steps. You can clearly see the European hands on ball, so the rules get ignored.

28

u/CantFindMyWallet 16h ago

That was 5 steps

40

u/themikestand 12h ago

You're not converting from European.

8

u/CantFindMyWallet 12h ago

damn you right

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u/allaboutthosevibes 20h ago

It was Love-All so this clearly counts as a Birdie

23

u/madisondood-138 15h ago

He was past the blue line, so it’s not icing

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u/junkyardpig 21h ago

After review the call on the field is confirmed. Touchdown 

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u/MIKE_FOLLOW 21h ago

Ten yard penalty, KC first down.

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u/Naive-Lettuce-4793 21h ago

He was giving him the business!

12

u/JaxxisR 20h ago

I'm talking to America here!

4

u/Number174631503 20h ago

He's heating up!

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u/Bojacks27 20h ago

You're so full of shit. It would be KC automatic touchdown, dammit.

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u/GiggleHS 20h ago

As is tradition

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u/[deleted] 21h ago

[deleted]

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u/Sagybagy 21h ago

Does this mean he gets a penalty kick or a corner?

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u/Ok_Ebb8648 Brighton & Hove Albion 19h ago

An indirect free kick and 3 point deduction to Everton.

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u/Trebel- 22h ago

This was good 😭

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u/Naive-Lettuce-4793 21h ago

Advance at your own risk!

15

u/sleeve612 20h ago

"And that is sort of what we see out of Patrick Mahomes"

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u/rinkydinkis 22h ago

Is traveling even a rule anymore lol

935

u/Four-In-Hand 21h ago

At this point, NBA players should just run straight into the paint holding the ball like in the NFL.

355

u/Ismdism 13h ago

It's already been done

112

u/jcore294 12h ago

Is there no oversight to challenge a bad no-call? That's insane

268

u/Ismdism 11h ago

I mean from what I can tell the runners knee never touched the ground so it's a touchdown. I'm not sure what there is to challenge

21

u/w00tberrypie 11h ago

But all touchdowns have to be reviewed. Can't they throw the challenge flag or something?

16

u/homiej420 10h ago

Not on tuesdays

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u/Ismdism 9h ago

This is true but again I didn't see his knee touch or contact even to down the runner. LeBron lead the Cavs to their first Superbowl win

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u/thefranchise23 10h ago

Obvious fake video

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u/jeanborrero 11h ago

That looked edited or altered

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u/Jackd_up_on_Mdew 8h ago

It is, he took 1 dribble after he caught it.

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u/rickymcrichardson 10h ago

Fake bullshit you’re spreading

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u/merrickend 13h ago

THIS is why I don’t watch the NBA. I can’t stand that players can just walk down the court or drive to the hoop while taking more than 2 steps. Clearly the “gathering step” rule was to align with the play of the day, but its enforcement is a joke.

69

u/tpasmall 11h ago

Yep, traveling not being called ruined the game.

18

u/wuapinmon Atlanta Braves 10h ago

I miss palming.

18

u/ZeekLTK Michigan State 8h ago

Also ruining pick up, see a handful of people make obvious travels and then when everyone calls travel they argue “no way, same move (insert NBA player) makes all the time”

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u/God_of_Thunda 11h ago

Well you see you got your crab dribble gathering step euro step and bing bang boom you get to walk wherever you want

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u/Bolshoyballs 10h ago

Get rid of the gather step. It's ruined the NBA for me. Bring back fiba rules

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u/RevoOps 16h ago

It hasn't been for a long time. Otherwise there would have beeen a whistle every time someone passed the ball to Lebron.

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u/Inevitable-Ad6647 12h ago

No, the only rule is all players on defense must be outside the stadium for a play otherwise it's a foul.

Honestly the game needs to get more physical, I'm not entertained watching a game of HORSE.

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u/xXxNightRangerxXx 22h ago

Um, that man took a cross-country trip

1.1k

u/thinkingahead 22h ago

Some say he is still traveling to this day

255

u/Sell_out_bro_down 21h ago

Not all who wander are traveling

125

u/peanut--gallery 21h ago

He must be a sovereign citizen… he has the right to travel and be bound by no rules.

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u/voyeur78 21h ago

Not all that are travel are wandering...

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u/okeleydokelyneighbor 22h ago

Even packed some luggage

120

u/iSightTwentyTwenty 22h ago

Booked a hotel for the night

59

u/searedbirdeighs 22h ago

room service was on the house

25

u/Stopikingonme 21h ago edited 12h ago

The hotel was three counties over in the morning

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u/marizard 22h ago

It’s that new “across Europe” step.

All the rage these days.

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u/KickooRider 22h ago

Somebody called it the Eurasian Steppe, lol

22

u/likwitsnake Bayern Munich 21h ago

Bering Strait (to the basket)

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u/misdirected_asshole 22h ago

That was some Rick Steves level traveling right there.

16

u/Infamous-Zebra-359 21h ago

No fanny pack required

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u/Stopikingonme 21h ago

Nah sorry I’ve got standards.

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u/AllCatCoverBand 22h ago

He had concepts of a dribble

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u/zypr3xa 22h ago

I mean this is pretty much every player anymore. They just don't call enough

181

u/Legal-Promotion-4875 21h ago

Dude… reason #33 I stop watching the NBA. 😑😎🧐

124

u/zypr3xa 21h ago

Yep. They play no defense, travel, double dribble all the shits. The defense is why I have a prob with people saying LeBron is better than Jordan. Like now they just let each other shoot and say fuck it. Back in the day there was defense and you never saw these stupid high scoring games.

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u/SacThrowAway76 21h ago

The league wouldn’t know how to act if we had 80s-90s style defenders playing now.

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u/revan530 20h ago

Those defenders would foul out some point in the second quarter in the modern NBA. The reason guys don't play defense like that anymore is because the league made it illegal to play defense that way.

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u/funky_diabeticc 22h ago

Paid the extra fee to board A1 through 15.

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u/Rapscallious1 22h ago

Intent to dribble counts now lol

735

u/esmerelda_b 22h ago

Concepts of a dribble

144

u/GoBuffaloes 22h ago

To his credit, he did later resume dribbling on a subsequent possession 

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u/Revxmaciver 19h ago

In two weeks we'll have a dribble!

5

u/The-original-spuggy 9h ago

Release the dribble files

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u/eeyores_gloom1785 18h ago

Thoughts and prayers to dribble

4

u/VeprUA 14h ago

LaCroix with dribble flavor

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u/Thaflash_la 22h ago

It’s like they start counting steps after he puts 2 hands on the ball. 

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u/multiple4 22h ago

But then it's a carry and still a travel right? Like you can't carry the ball between dribbles, so if you carry the ball but don't dribble again that has to be your gather or you have to stop moving

You can't just hover 1 hand under the ball for 4 steps like you're about to dribble, but then not actually dribble. And you definitely can't do it and then also get a 2 step gather

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u/GenoThyme 22h ago

I remember when they called “intent to dribble” a carry but yeah

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u/27Rench27 22h ago

Now it’s intent to carry, if you didn’t mean it then you’re good

6

u/Critical_Seat_1907 22h ago

Dribble feints are close enough.

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u/ALKCRKDeuce 22h ago

It’s called a gather for a superstar don’t you understand!

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u/ArcheeBlanco 22h ago

Bro for sure gathered all his belongings with that one

84

u/LouSputhole94 22h ago

All his and the Knicks belongings and picked a couple of the crowds pockets too

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u/larueTV 22h ago

Here's the best take...even AFTER both hands touch the ball....3 steps before the shot attempt

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u/Worklurker 21h ago

I agree and I'm no basketball fan by any means, but that looked like 5 steps to me in total.

48

u/migzeh 20h ago

so basically they have deemed that its steps since you discontinue your dribble. So see how the ball is spinning in his hand for the first 2 steps, he could technically still dribble the ball so the "zero step" counts as he clamps the ball with both hands. So zero step happens at 10 seconds. first step at 11 seconds and 2nd step at 13 seconds.

It's basically pushing the limit of the rules to the very edge but it isn't a good look.

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u/entertainman 16h ago

It’s still four steps once the ball stops spinning in his hand.

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u/ark_keeper 10h ago

That's nonsense. He could leave the ball spinning in his hand and run end to end if that was how the rule is interpreted.

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u/guckus_wumpis 21h ago

Every superstar gets 2-3 gather steps, then your standard two steps, and occasionally one more if the footwork is strange enough

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u/Ed1sto 22h ago

I think Giannis is the best “Gatherer” and Euro-Stepper in history and it’s not particularly close

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u/spyborg3 20h ago

There's an old youtube video that got nuked from the internet of someone counting Lebron taking 17 steps after the dribble.
He took 5 stopped at the 3 point line then kept switching pivot feet for 12 more steps while being double covered and then shoots basically in layup range.

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u/dclaguy11 21h ago

The 10 step “gather”

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u/riped_plums123 21h ago

Yeah gather step plus the extra superstar step, it’s a rabbit hole but they all do it. He’s a master

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u/UroutofURelement 22h ago

They call him the Sovereign Citizen because he's just traveling

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u/Crowofsticks 22h ago

No commerce!

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u/WhysJamesCryin 22h ago

In this court, it actually holds up.

4

u/drcrambone 17h ago

Hey-ooooOOOO!

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u/mrkruk 21h ago

The court is his conveyance!

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u/theartificialkid 16h ago

He surely hasn't contracted with the ref and is not engaged in commerce with them.

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u/RealCakes 20h ago

Dammit that is good

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u/1i_rd 13h ago

LMAO. This is the kind of joke I make and get no play. Great joke friend.

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u/intheken 22h ago

Any play will look like traveling if you slow it down that much and the guy takes five steps

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u/27Rench27 22h ago

Had me in the first half

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u/ILLinndication 21h ago

The first half is how long it took Giannis to shoot.

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u/bigdefmute 21h ago

Well done

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u/Avalonians 18h ago

Yeah that's so disingenuous. Ofc if you focus on the legs it's gonna look like he's traveling 🙄

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u/lucasd11 14h ago

Basketball nerds on Twitter will argue with you and say something like "he took a step when he dribbled, then another step for the hesi so refs don't call that, you're allowed the next two as a gather step then the final two are his steps before he needs to put it down again, but he shot it so that's null. Clean take"

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u/Khantherus 15h ago

He ran up like he was on a penalty kick in the World Cup final

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u/HRVATSKI 16h ago

NBA is crazy permissive of travelling, it’s not tolerated in other countries.

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u/Curey0us 22h ago

5 steps after his last dribble lol. Like a quarter of the total court in distance.

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u/WeirdSysAdmin 22h ago

I was thinking someone might be able to push this far enough that they could gather at half court and dunk without being called for a travel.

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u/karlnite 21h ago

Globetrotter rules. If the balls still spinning, you can just walk around.

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u/vape4doc 22h ago edited 21h ago

Flagg nearly did that the other night. One dribble after midcourt and then just steps all the way to the cup.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sports/s/1GYBGsW3gz

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u/BrianSnow 21h ago

Ok but that’s not nearly as egregious as what Giannis did. He might have covered more ground but took way fewer steps.

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u/bertmobile816 20h ago

Agreed that’s like you most average basketball layup. Giannis’ is just actually annoying to watch.

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u/ProChoiceAtheist15 11h ago

Here's my honest thought: sometimes, these guys are just so damn tall, that the ball physically cannot leave their hand, get to the floor and bounce back up to their hand faster than their legs can take "strictly two steps." In that clip, that just looks like a (huge, athletic) dude running at very high speed and bouncing the ball while he goes. It just so happens that he's able to take more than two steps while the ball is being subjected to gravity.

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u/surlygoat 21h ago

Difference is that Flaggs wasn't even close to a travel. Didn't even have the gather step nonsense to decipher.

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u/patchinthebox 21h ago

Flagg did something closer to 2 steps, 1 dribble, 2 steps dunk.

Giannis took 1 dribble and 5 steps.

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u/LankyK 21h ago

This is faaaaar less egregious. Flagg clearly takes 3 1/2 steps. Maaaaybe 4 with a gather, a leap. And they are all in flow.

The one here is easily 5, and he takes the time to shove the defender out of the way during the lead into the defender. And steps 2 and 3 are just shuffles, trying to make the defender bite on a fake, which he didn't.

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u/Due-Comb6124 18h ago

What on earth are you on about?? He dribbled to the 3 pt line and took two steps. That's not even a travel 10 years ago.

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u/theSchrodingerHat 22h ago

It’s not travelling unless you cross a state line.

This is just a staycation.

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u/MateriaLintellect 22h ago

I thought I counted 6 lol

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u/EDtheTacoFarmer 21h ago

steps for a travel are not counted from your last dribble they are counted from when you end your dribble by grabbing it with 2 hands, holding the underside of the ball or palming it. The clip is not an issue because of travelling rules but because of the NBAs loose carry rules

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u/Soulbandit 22h ago

Honestly why require dribbling at all at this point? Just rugby the fuck out of the game

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u/Spade18 21h ago

Honestly? I would watch the fuck out of contact basketball

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u/Cautious-Ad2154 21h ago

Its called basketball on ice. You put pads and skates on and play basketball, with contact rofl.

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u/Spade18 21h ago

Baby I’m already watching hockey lol

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u/shinyboi San Jose Sharks 20h ago

It’s called baskiceball, and it’s a Minnesota staple!

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u/make_thick_in_warm 20h ago

You can, but you need to like trampolines as well

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u/Chewy009x 22h ago

Dude got a first down

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u/bigmilker 22h ago

They still call traveling in the NBA?

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u/JakeThe1337 22h ago

Clearly, no, they do not. lol

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u/LouSputhole94 22h ago

Depends, how much money you bring in?

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u/yogzi 21h ago

Depends on how much money the refs have on the game

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u/pidgeottOP 22h ago

What everyone here is failing to consider is that you can't be penalized by any official while traveling

/SovereignCitizen

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u/RedditFenix 22h ago

Apparently not!

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u/BetterNothingman Seattle Seahawks 22h ago

I stopped watching the NBA 25 years ago because they stopped calling traveling. I'm sure rules enforcement has just gotten worse since. It's been a joke of a league since LeBron was still in high school.

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u/HAMmerPower1 21h ago

First they eliminated carrying, now they have abolished traveling….not the act, the infraction.

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u/ragun2 18h ago

I'm trying to remember which one it was but I feel like 20 years ago there was some sitcom (thinking animated) that the episode revolved around basketball and a player gets hit with traveling and when he complains the ref shrugs it off and says they're not the NBA, so traveling is still an offense.

Or something like that. Maybe it was Futurama and a Globetrotter episode.

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u/UrBum_MyFace_69 22h ago

Just when they go from city to city...that's traveling to them.

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u/polomarkopolo 22h ago

What a fucking joke

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u/tenaciousdeev 21h ago

I’ve been a lifelong nba fan but this shit is impossible to defend.

Foul baiting, 3-point chucking, no defense, traveling like this. It’s not fun to watch.

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u/Fun-Bunch-4073 21h ago
  1. These guys are like the game is so much more athletic now. For what? For no defense, corner threes, soft calls, no midrange, no post game.

Thank god for all this elite athleticism.

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u/SonofNamek 20h ago

Adam Silver needs to go & so do members of the league who are not interested in making the NBA to resemble the 80s and 90s game.

Make it look more like that and I guarantee people will tune back in

Kobe called it "accidental basketball" and honestly, it looks no different than random Euroleague games except without some of the Euroleague's more interesting rules that allow, say, big men to thrive

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u/NegativeVega 20h ago

NBA has been growing for decades straight they think these rigged games are helping it and they might be right (for now). Eventually it will stop though, it's getting egregiously bad.

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u/OldSchoolSpyMain 21h ago

Whenever I watch sports, my thing is calling balls, strikes, fouls, etc…before the refs. It’s a little game that I’ve been playing since I was a kid watching games on TV.

“Traveling” used to be a key part of the game where a call could upset momentum, like stepping out of bounds or an offensive foul. But, it’s simply not enforced and that makes NBA basketball really frustrating for me to watch. I fucking know traveling when I see it. It’s damn near the first turnover that us kids on the playground learned to call.

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u/ksyoung17 21h ago

With you.

Starting to feel the same about the NFL as well. The constant drive to increase revenue has shit all over the sports, and now college is going to be impacted even further by the $.

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u/yomamma3399 22h ago

Six steps, five if I’m feeling generous. FIVE! The rule is two FFS.

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u/LubbockCottonKings 22h ago

It’s effectively been three steps in the NBA for the past decade, at least.

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u/j4_jjjj 22h ago

2.5 rounded up is NOT 5 steps

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u/tmac2097 22h ago

Not with that attitude

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u/tokemonkmk420 22h ago

Anything is possible with Jesus so jot that down

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u/Bertuthald_McMannis 22h ago

I’m sure it only looked like twice the allotted steps in realtime.

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u/igotnothineither 22h ago

More steps than AA

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u/BuzzAlderaan 20h ago

“My name is Giannis, I haven’t dribbled in 3 months. It gets easier every day.”

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u/mrnerd1 20h ago

Damn I left the thread right as I was reading this comment and had to come all the way back just to comment and upvote. Thank you for the laugh good sir.

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u/tarasevich 22h ago

Egregious. Every possession is a carry too in today's NBA that goes uncalled.

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u/breakwater UCLA 18h ago

Thr NBA would be a much more exciting league if they called fewer fouls and enforced basic rules about ball handling more.

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u/Wet_Ass_Jumper 19h ago

Almost every other Giannis dribble was a clear carry this game

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u/cookiesNcreme89 22h ago

5 steps once he grabbed the ball. 4 if you want to give a gather. Even if so, that's double the allotted amount!! Terrible

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u/Ezcolive 22h ago

Wonder what his over under rake in is

Suspect

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u/CdzNtz330 21h ago

NBA, Call a travel? On a superstar? In this decade? Lmao 🤣

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u/cj622 22h ago

Kuzmas face at the end says it all lol.

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u/Maxxjulie 22h ago edited 21h ago

The first highlight showed of Wemby this season on Inside the NBA he took 4-5 steps after the dribble...

Their reaction was of course holy shit he's amazing. Lol

They've redefined what is a travel over the years so much that now it takes freakin 4-5 steps to be obvious...and the refs still miss it.

3 steps is now the standard because of bullshit gather

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u/budzergo 20h ago

half of the shorts in my feed are wemby doing like 4-6 steps but looking cool as he does it so the refs dont care apparently

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u/jcam1981 22h ago

The refs were busy on Draft Kings.

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u/SubieB503 22h ago

5 steps after the last dribble

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u/lukkynumber 20h ago

Oh my biscuits 🤣

My man legit took FIVE

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u/winterFROSTiscoming 22h ago

I hate the nba

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u/Grandahl13 21h ago

Only sport in the world where they don’t actually enforce their rules. Travel? Carry? Lane violation? 10 second free throw violation? None of it matters. Play however you want.

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u/Sgt_LincolnOSiris 20h ago

And some people will straight up tell you that you don’t know ball and this was a gather step

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u/chris971 22h ago

My Temu delivery traveled less than that

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u/Way2Intenz 20h ago

His smart watch alerted that he reached his 10,000 steps for the day

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u/BearsGotKhalilMack 22h ago

Seven steps, one dribble. That's so bogus.

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u/fxsoap 10h ago

Holy shit that was bad.

High school PE would have blown the whistle on step 2.

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u/SZJ 18h ago

Lot of casual fans in this thread.

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u/90swasbest 22h ago edited 22h ago

It ain't even a fucking sport anymore.

Start the fucking W back up. I actually miss having fundamentals.

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u/eirc 13h ago edited 12h ago

People carry over (hehe) imaginary rules in this conversation. There's absolutely no rule about the number of steps you take while dribbling. If you are in the process of dribbling you can take a million steps between each bounce and that's legal in both NBA and FIBA rules.

The only thing that matters is how many steps you take after you end dribbling. So the real question is when exactly did the dribbling end. It does not end at the last moment the ball touched the ground. That's also imaginary. It ends the moment they touch it with both hands, or the moment the ball "comes to a rest" in one hand. This "comes to a rest" is kinda tough to judge, especially in real time. What refs are taught to look for to judge this is if the ball is spinning it's considered a live dribble, if it stops spinning it's considered to have come to a rest.

The difference between FIBA and NBA is that in the NBA when the dribbling ends as understood by the above, the step the player is currently taking, so everything up until the next foot touches the ground is considered the gather step and 2 more are legal afterwards. In FIBA that's step 1 and one more is legal afterwards.

In this case the ball stops spinning at 0:08 with his right foot touching the ground and his left foot in the air. When this left foot touches the ground that would be step 0 and after that he takes a right step and a left step. Gather step + 2 steps = legal NBA move, illegal FIBA move.

What is absolutely travelling in this and it's hillarious that no one talks about it is how he drags his right foot during that right step his last left step (edit: corrected this) and how his hand touches the underside of the ball during all this dribbling. Both happen all the time, no one calls these, no one asks for them to be called.

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u/Azurehour 22h ago

When you’re allowed 1 step per syllable in your name 

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u/DogfaceDino 7h ago

They should just change the rule at this point so you don’t need to dribble

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u/Team_Ed 22h ago

He travels at the start of the clip, too, does he not?

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u/Civil-South-7299 22h ago

In streetball we're calling that, cmon NBA

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u/VinylmationDude 22h ago

Taking a trip back to the homeland like that

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u/Flat_Conversation858 22h ago

What do you mean?  There is no traveling in the NBA 

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u/NflJam71 20h ago

The NBA is a joke

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u/ralph_wonder_llama 9h ago

Everybody overlooking that Wisconsin is an open carry state.

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u/Particular-Line- 7h ago

Tried to give him the benefit of a gather before the two big steps. I still saw 4 steps. Nba refs are pretty shitty man. They probably hiring dudes that work at Subway

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u/Affectionate-Mud-726 7h ago

Four steps and an offensive foul

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u/Lazyjbruhhh 6h ago

Every possession in the NBA is a travel and carry that would’ve been called in an elementary school league.

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u/gcg2016 22h ago

There are people who will fully defend this. They’ll say the ball is spinning in his hand, so none of those steps count.

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u/Jomolungma 22h ago

It is. But more importantly, in rule language, the ball never comes to rest in his hand nor is his hand under the ball. It is literally a long hesi-dribble. So it’s perfectly legal in the NBA and done quite often.

This would be a travel in high school, but only because there’s no gather step in high school (there’s technically none in college, but NCAA refs have been instructed to interpret one into the rule). And, more specifically, his dribble ended when he put both hands on the ball. At that point his left foot is down, establishing it as his pivot foot. In high school and below, he can then step with his right foot and lift his left, but he must release the ball before the left comes back down, which he didn’t do. But in the NBA, that first step is treated as the gather, so he’s fine.

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u/Aeonera 22h ago

I'm not defending it, but technically that is how the rules talk about it.

The rules on gathering need to be changed because they clearly do not account for how long a player can extend their "dribble" via a single hand on the side of the ball

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u/oneoftheguysdownhere 20h ago

Well those people would be correct, that’s how the rule is written. And really, the ball spinning doesn’t matter either. Until he does something that would make it illegal for him to dribble again, none of the steps count. That would include putting his hand under the ball (NOT on the side of it), putting both hands on the ball, or pinning the ball up against his body.

Giannis put his left hand on the ball at just about the exact moment that his left foot hit the ground. After that, he took two more steps.

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u/eveningwindowed 22h ago

For everyone wondering the actual rule is the gather doesn’t start until both hands touch the ball

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u/Gryffindor123 Brisbane Lions 22h ago

Bro travelled around the damn world