Traveling in the NBA

To prove to you that I don't only write about the NFL I bring you this:

Is it just me, or does Lebron James travel all the time and get away with it?

I haven't watched the NBA seriously in a few years now. For one reason, my girlfriend can't stand watching sports, so I often have to make some concessions. I have to save my precious few allotted hours for March Madness and NFL Sundays and Mondays (and sometimes Saturdays and Thursdays.)

There's also this, though: it's just not that interesting anymore. When the Suns were running a fast-paced, run-n'-gun offense and Steve Nash was working his magic feeding the likes of Staudemire, Diaw, Bell, Thomas, Barbosa, etc. it was a thing of beauty. It was just so exciting! But basketball has changed a lot in the last few seasons. It seems to be a selfish league now, with a few superstars out for themselves and very little emphasis on team play.

But anyway, I digress. I was watching some of the Cavs game this evening and I was shocked by one thing: Lebron James travels. All the time. And he gets away with it! It's one thing to call him out for his "crab dribble" (which is clearly a travel) but that's not the extent of his happy feet.

There were at least 5 or 6 moments in this evening's game against the Nets where James got away with a walk. I might be wrong - I'm watching the game on a standard def TV, I'm not right there on the court like the refs - but from my vantage point the infractions seemed pretty eggregious.

There are essentially 2 major categories of Lebron travels. The first is what I call the "crunch time travel." This happens when Lebron is double- or tripple-teamed - often under the basket - and he pivots back and forth, often switching his pivot foot. He did that on the play under the basket and came away with a historic basket: His 2,000th point of the season, giving him 4 career seasons with 2,000 pts., 500 rebounds and 500 assists.

The second major category is the "Three step Dunk." Lebron will often cradle the ball and take 3, sometimes even 4? steps before a dunk or a layup. The killer on this one is that it usually happens on a fast-break when there's no one to stop him. Why don't the refs call the travel? Because it doesn't matter, it's not going to help him make the basket or give him an unfair advantage? Maybe, but if it's that obvious you have to make the call. Oh well.

And before anyone starts calling me a Cavs hater let me make it clear that I have no basketball allegiences what-so-ever. I have neither a favorite player nor a least favorite player. I have neither a favorite team nor a least favorite team.