In the NBA, traveling calls can be a bit of a laugher. From lack of consistency, misinterpretation, or plain stupidity, it’s a joke sometimes and it hurts the game. Last year, commissioner David Stern pressed this as a point of emphasis, and worked it out well. Everyone started to take notice. When the officials called traveling against the King himself (oh God, no they didn’t), the fans were surprised and shocked, but impressed. Fans have been waiting for referees to call that since ‘Grandmama’ was terrozing the streets with his fearsome Reeboks. Making that call consistently brings balance and fluidity to the game, thus making it better for all.

Oh Grandmama, your dunk doesn’t count. You traveled.

No matter what the rules are in any sport, the primary function of a referee is to govern advantage/disadvantage. Example: Aaron Brooks drives to the lane hard, weaving in and out of the defense to get to the hoop, and then as he is going up, Jason Kidd, gives him a little shove in the back, not a big shove, but a push to the body. Aaron Brooks continues through the contact and finishes strong. Let it go. Don’t call it. That little shove obviously didn’t affect Brooks; there was no advantage gained. Now the game moves on, and you start to build flow (college officials are the masters of this). You create feel and balance, and the game becomes better because you let the players decipher the outcome of the game, not the refs, and that’s what the fans want to see anyway. So, when officials can’t consistently call a travel, you lose balance and control of the game.

For the 2009-2010 season, David Stern has implemented the two step rule. This is going to throw everybody off. A “walk” is defined as illegally advancement of the ball without taking a dribble, shot, or pass. It becomes legal/illegal by establishing your pivot foot. On a dribble, you cannot pick up your pivot foot until you start to push the ball to the floor. With a pass or shot, you can lift your pivot foot, and then take a shot or pass, but the foot cannot comeback down to the floor (very common misconception of the rule). Now, with this new “rule” instated, how is any ref going to honestly be able to judge or define what a travel is? Two steps? Everyone in their right mind think that’s the rule anyway, but it’s wrong. It is where you establish your pivot foot. It’s unfair to the officials and players, because some refs are going to call it when it wasn’t, and visa-versa. It defeats the purpose of officiating, and more importantly, the game itself. It will be interesting to see how long this rule will be in effect, maybe it’ll last just as long as the synthetic ball (My hands are grasped firmly together in prayer for that to happen), but we’ll see. Only time will tell, and hopefully there will be feedback on this issue around the league.

This is the “The Ref” signaling I’m out until next time, and remember: We miss calls, you miss layups.