Have Ball, Will Travel: LeBron James

I'm pretty sure Pierce fouled LeBron before the travel.

Anyone else see LeBron and his obvious travel to end game 4 against the bulls? Just sickening. His jumper made it a 6 pt game with under a min to go. If you watch, he clearly establishes his right foot as his pivot foot. Then clearly steps forward with his left foot prior to shooting the ball. Just a travel... A real obvious one. This is getting frustrating as a fan of basketball. Cmon refs.

I agree with the poster who said he's 6'9" or whatever, with a 4.5 forty... He doesn't need additional help from the refs but he usually gets away with things. It's a shame.

Didn't he also travel on the steal when Celtics were down by 6? Seemed like Celtics should have gotten the ball back with about 32 seconds left down by 6.

@Joel Dude you clearly aren't watching the replay or you're doing it with your Heat jersey on. that wasn't a foul on Pierce. should we also include the fact that Miami took twice as many FTs in game 4 and put an end to all this crap about Lebron and Wade not getting fouls called.

Welcome to this little corner of insanity on the internet! It's always good to see more people who are willing to actually discuss things rather than flame. Hope to hear from you more Bates.

People are saying he again made a violation in that steal and dunk he had at the end of the fourth this Game 5. This one is easier to correct however, it's obvious he didn't establish possession yet once he tapped the ball, and thus could dribble again after for the dunk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gy1AUXkWrs&feature=player_embedded

Humberto, that's true of any star player. But no doubt, LeBron has a ton of haters and a ton of fans.

As for the charge, I meant they jumped to the spot they thought the player was going to. The way I understand a ref's perspective is, was the guy in position first and did the offensive player dislodge him by hitting his "name and number". Which would explain LeBron not getting a charge called on him when he spun in game 2 and hit Rondo's shoulder (sending Rondo flying) I think they made the right call in all 3 instances bc in the two charge calls from game four, the player put a shoulder into the name and number and in game 2, Rondo didn't get to the spot that LeBron 'went through'. I always tell my players to attack the shoulders of a defender, just as I was taught; it works.

Sorry to be off topic. But also, being that this is my first time, I want to say I love the concept and discussion on here; not as many psycho comments as a lot of other places.

This is how you get a response "LeBron" and insert what he did wrong or right.

I should probably clarify on the block/charge thing, I didn't word it well above. Gathering the ball signals the beginning of the steps for a travel. Gathering the body to jump for the shot signals the end of a defender's time to get into position. They're not the same gathering motion. (I wish I could edit that comment)

Traveller - Good point on the travel by Pierce to get open for the winning shot. In case some of you doubt it, here it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VeUFYyhu5M

Forgot to mention that along with the hand check, there's also a blatant push on the back of Lebron's left shoulder by Pierce too... as I stated on the youtube page to the original poster's video, the refs did the right thing by letting it go... no need to put Lebron on the line to take 2 free throws.

Thanx for pointing that out jon, i should have checked the site a bit more, yeah i'm guilty of being apologetic for LBJ, i'm a fan of his and after the year of criticism he's had i feel it's important to stick up for him sometimes, anyway thanx for setting me straight.

The point of inflection is when the player with the ball gathers to take off. So if the player looking to take the charge has his body (not necessarily feet) in position before that happens, the call is a charge as long as it's not in the restricted area.

Basically a ref should be looking for traveling and the block/charge distinction simultaneously because the gathering motion is the signal point for both.

Ah I hadn't seen the Rondo charge, point taken then.
Btw, you can't 'jump to the spot' in front of a moving player to immediately take a charge, right? There needs to be some time where your feet are 'set' or something.. Except if the 'charger' hits/pushes the defender with his arms in the center torso. Does anyone know any more parts of the definition?

Ya, what’s the point of this, are they saying this tainted or altered the eventual outcome of the game?

The name of the feature says it all. This is a recurring piece that examines possible traveling violations, not foul calls that should have been, and certainly not whether or not the play changed the game. It hasn't even always been about plays that were travels. In this case there was a traveling violation, but if you look through the archive you'll see other situations where what looked like a travel turned out not to be.

The series merely looks at one of the rules that gets more creative license in how it's called than some others do. It is funny though, how reader responses change depending on who the player in question is. If Kobe or Lebron is showcased, apologists show up every time to defend them. Other players? Not so predictable.

Agree with Bates. If you want to complain about James drawing the charge on Pierce, you have to complain about Rondo drawing the charge on James. These things go both ways and both plays were identical.

As for the above video, it's definitely a travel BUT if you're going to point out the travel, you need to be consistent and point out the foul Pierce commits beforehand. At the 37 second mark he has 2 hands on a driving James, that's a whistle and 2 foul shots.

As a Sixers fan I hate both of these teams but it's disengenuous to imply that the Heat were helped by the officials in a very evenly called game.

James' charge on Rondo was identical to Pierce's charge on James. So at least they were consistent. I think both were a good call, the defender jumps to the spot, outsmarting the dribbler and takes a hit in the center torso. I like that call.

Ehm since we are talking bad calls at the end of that game, the charge on Pierce was also terrible.. Lebron is clearly still moving (even in slow-motion) and his mischievous smile+exhale after that says it all :) But no, these calls didn't decide the game, it was more the Miami plan of letting Delonte make the crucial plays at the end..

Ya, what's the point of this, are they saying this tainted or altered the eventual outcome of the game? If we're going to nitpick, where does it end. They're right, he was fouled, he was also fouled by Shaq twice in the first quarter w/ no call, both were and 1s. And Jermaine O'Neal had his foot out of bounds on his first dunk, and Pierce traveled to get open on the final shot. Getting the point yet? The refs didn't call the foul and didn't call the travel on the dislodged player. Games 3 and 4 were foul fests, we gonna nitpick those? Game five is in 7.5 hours, with everything exactly how it should be.

Finally someone mentions hand checking, it s funny that it is not supposed to be allowed but i see it all the time and refs never call it, i love how people talk about hand checking like it never happens ie Jordan played when handchecking was allowed, not to take anything away from MJ but players hand check while defending on almost every drive, never gets called, not that i mind but lets b honest handchecking is basically still allowed.

Refs never call that... happens too fast, I would be more inclined to agree with a travel being called after he lifts his pivot foot (as Drumbaby stated), but then again, the refs probably let it go instead of calling a foul on Pierce; his hand checking on the drive is hard enough that it takes Lebron off of his intended path, and THAT is why he had to replant.

So the ref did the right thing, let it play out instead of putting Lebron to the line with two free throws!

Get a grip.

That was a travel, but because of the shuffle after he comes to a stop, not B4, most players in the NBA get 3 steps while driving this isn't new, PP takes 3 steps a couple of plays B4 this one and Rondo travels a lot also. I counted at least 2 or 3 in this game, yeah the rule is 2 and a half, half being the collecting step but everybody knows it's 3. Don't make it seem like LBJ is the only one. A lot of rules are inconsistently called in the NBA.

Also, if this is a travel, then what if Pierce's fade at the buzzer had gone in, he blatantly traveled on that play to create space, but there was no whistle. So if it had fallen, would he have his own little replay on here?

It's not as black and white as you state. I'll be the first to admit my gut reaction is travel, but the video misses one point; the gather step. He didn't gather the ball into two hands until what they called the first step and he didn't carry. The rule on carrying is two steps w/o the ball hitting the floor, so he's clear there, and he stops on his jump stop on actual step two. Where I think there is a travel is the pivot swap, but we need to see what the current rules say on selection of pivot foot. I know that they did away w/ the old concept of automatically making it the back foot. But I think it would still require the player to land on both feet at the same time to allow the player to choose. So if he traveled, it happened on the pivot. But pivot rules need to be posted.

LeTraveling James did it again!

At least three violations:
he also lifted and replanted his left foot on his third step. See 0:43/0:44 of the video.
So that makes it 5 steps...

Interesting that nobody points out the blatant foul by Pierce. He had BOTH hands holding Lebron back by his shoulder. The correct call would be a foul and two free throws, long before any travel call.

But the media and fans don't give Pierce (or most other players) the same kind of scrutiny.

I have always hated the superstar treatment no matter which team. call the game the way it's supposed to be called no matter what player it is.

One thing to consider in determining how bad a call it was, is "Does that motion generate a traveling violation when performed by another player? A rookie? A center? A "big white stiff" center? Another star player?"

I complain bitterly about the refs, but that isn't so much because of the palming and traveling (okay, those too). Nor even the general Stern-sanctioned disregard of the rulebook, because "We're the NBA, dammit! Our fans are stupid noobs who want an entertaining simulacrum of the game of basketball with lots of slam dunks, "larger than life" superstars, slam dunks, teams "imposing their will" on others and especially...slam dunks! Not just basketball.".

I think even worse is the ridiculously and unnecessarily arbitrary discrepancy, from player to player, in how what rules are applied, are applied.

Yes, that was traveling, no, it wasn't traveling on Lebron, ESPECIALLY late in a tight playoff game.

Thus are superstars manufactured for the entertainment of the NBA's target demographic.

Don't get me wrong, Lebron is a fantastic talent, a freak of nature...but those traits will...errr...should still make him a standout player, right? Even on a level playing field? Hell, we've all seen certain "less athletic" players called for traveling for simply handling the ball in a clumsy fashion (not an actual violation of the rules). And Lebron gets the benefit of the doubt on this kind of stuff.

Why? Because he's a great player! And why is he a great player? Because he can make these kinds of plays! And why do the refs let him travel? Because he's a great player!

I understand, this all serves the interest of Stern, Nike, ESPN, CBS, Billy Hunter, TNT, Amex, Adidas, Bud, etc ad infinitum...and it's hard to get people to protest against circular logic and give up celebrity-worship as having little to do with real athletic competition. I know I'm just tilting at virtual windmills..but the NBA still sucks.

This wasn't a 3-step drive at all, he clearly stopped his movement towards the basket. So it's a (terrible) gather+jump-stop with an extra pivot at the end. All in all, two extra steps - you should really number the last pivot too so that people understand.
I was screaming at the TV last night but all my non-European friends seem to never look at the player's feet.
Shiv: they ALWAYS call it a travel after the 'crab dribble' debacle - they just missed it yesterday. Pierce gets called for it many times too.

personally, i counted 5 steps if you count that little shuffle at the end when he shoots. not to mention creating an illegal pivot.

mmm lebron good job teaching every1 else how to play basketball. every coach should start teaching this move. its quite useful

I'm new in this sport but what are you calling a gather step? I didn't know I can use some special extra step, could you explain me, it may help a lot

@shiv - even if you gave Bron the benefit of the doubt and said the left was his gather, he still took 3 more steps after that. more to the point of why this was a travel: after a jump stop, you cannot subsequently pivot. Bron did - and even took two more steps in doing so. Stern needs to at least offer Boston one of those worthless "we blew the call" apologies. what's the thought process of the refs here: 'well, if he'd taken that 6th step, we would've blown the whistle'?

It was pretty clearly a travel when I saw it live ... this only confirms it

Even though this looked like a travel, it's a debatable question about which step was the gather step. Especially when it happens as quickly as Lebron does it (and Jordan before him) refs are bound to miss it. And really, the distinction between the gather and the first step for all players is pretty murky. I've never seen a ref call something like that a travel and crunch-time in the playoffs is no time to start.

Guy is 6'9" and runs a 4.5...doesn't need any more help from the refs. I see what you see, 202. 5 steps!

There is no "pause" button for the ref and that is a good thing because that doesn't take into account momentum. Have you ever watched Rondo dribble in the open court? He often takes three or more steps between dribbles, but it isn't traveling because the ball is still in motion. He can't be penalized for being quick. What you are counting as the first step occurs while the he dribbles the ball and the gather step is considered the same basketball move. The ref could have called a carry, but the ref granted Lebron his rhythm for making an aggressive move with space. Lebron does travel after this but only because he switched pivot feet on the step through, something that gets missed just as much as it gets called nowadays. But counting steps on your screen with a pause button is not an accurate way of accessing a play because your screen can violate laws of matter like inertia, but basketball is made of those laws.

Crab dribble, plain and simple.

Lets not mention the fact of KG grabbing his right arm during the shot. We'll just let that one go too. hahah

This is why the idea that refs should swallow their whistle during certain points in the game is a moronic notion. You get taught to play a certain way and get told to play the right way for the entire game. I'm always for a foul being a foul, and a travel being a travel. A few of my pet peeves in watching basketball is how players palm the ball as they dribble, how they always feel they are in the right, and the way most of them get away with traveling. It's frustrating to view in realtime. And while I'll always say to myself that referees are human too, it gets harder to defend when it things become blatant and the whistles get pocketed because it's a "big moment" in the game.

I thought I was the only one! Question: why don't you count that fourth step? Just because number three establishes a (illegal) pivot, I still think number four is number four (gosh I hope that translates). AND, as long as we're splitting hairs, he pretty clearly shuffles that third step into a fifth (by my count) before he goes up. Lebron!

He deserved a pass for all the times he and wade were fouled without a whistle being blown.

Pretty obvious travel. With that said, it's about time LBJ gets a break at crunch time.