vslice02
Well-Known Member
Agree; LeBron often got away with the "crab-dribble," Shaq in his prime would get away with an extra hop-step in the lane, and often when Malone would shoot his half-turn/half-face-up jumper on the left block - he would slide his pivot foot before going up for his shot (a perfect example on the basket that gave him 50 pts against Seattle in 2000). Hakeem had beautiful footwork, but he also would routinely take an extra step on his counter moves. (Random aside: If you ever go back and re-watch Game 5 of the '97 WCF [can be found on youtube], coming out of timeouts everyone in the Delta Center would be making the travelling motion to remind the officials to keep an eye on it. They finally called it and the place went bonkers.)Malone traveled a fair amount where it wasn't called. They also don't like to call it unless it gives the offensive player an advantage (see Dan Majerle).
The subjectivity over travel no-calls never bothered me as much as the inconsistencies with illegal defenses and 3-seconds.