Jan 4, 2009 -- 10:47PM, CavalierCrazy wrote:

we should blame the nba for scheduling this game for sunday afternoon right as the nfl playoffs were going on. of course the refs would try to prevent the tie so we dont get OT and make them miss more playoffs. i bet you the refs were in a bad mood and wanted to take it out on the "kings of the nba". either way lebron did travel and shouldve dribbled more because it was a simple basket and we lost to a very crappy team

Yes that was funny about the nfl playoffs I gotta give you that one BUT

1. The wizards are not necessarily a crappy team they have the weapons in Jamison and Butler. I would call them a struggling team not a crappy team.

2. What LeBron did was not easy. All of that movement and alleged travel was to throw off his defender.

Well, I have been saying for a very long time that I wish they would call traveling more often in the NBA. I just wish it didn't have to happen yesterday, but it looked like a good call to me. One of the few in that game.

He traveled.  And, in response to those he should be allowed as some kind of make-up call for all the fouls they don't call:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhbM6uuCt74

We won a playoff game when LeBron travelled TWICE on the way to the game winning shot.  They more than deserved that call. 

Alright, so after researching on the travel call and seeing the replay over and over, i came onto CF hoping yall would agree with me...unfortunately not; everyones saying he travelled. 

Okay, so travelling is when you take more than two steps after you have the ball in BOTH hands...right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhv101bx9u0

What I saw:

so he took one step from the time the ball left his hand, bounced on the floor and came back up. (which i think people are counting as the 3rd step)

it was AT THAT POINT that he grabbed the ball with two hands with his right foot down.

Then he takes a small step with putting his left foot down (1st step) and then a very large step (2nd step). 

To me...that ISNT travelling. I understand that it happened and you really can't sit there and talk what if's in basketball but i think more for future reference this should be understood better by both lebron and the refs.

Take a look at the video and see for yourself...he DOESN'T travel. 

Yeah, it's close.  If you look at it from the perspective that he's trying to jump-stop, then his last two steps should be simultaneous, and on this play they obviously aren't, so you call a travel.  If you look at it like a traditional drive, IMO he takes 2.6 steps.  You are allowed 2 and a half, but IMO, his last dribble comes too early.  That means that his back foot, in this case his left foot, is the pivot foot.  If he would have picked up his dribble a spit-second later, then his front foot (right) would be considered the established pivot foot. 

Even if you believe that he wasn't trying to jump-stop, IMO its a judgement call that could go either way and IMO, it leans more towards the travel call.  If that makes sense, then you can't blame the ref for siding with the home team. 

I watched the game on NBA LP and their "color commentator" was making comments ALL GAME about the free throw discrepency from the Xmas game and this one.  He was almost as unappologetically biased as the Celtics announcer; he's the worst.  You know the refs hear a lot of the comments by the announcers.  It's gotta be hard to tune that out, because they are usually pretty respected.  The Wizards announcer is a former ref, too, I think.  I'm not saying that's a good excuse to blow a call because of the emotion of the home court, but if the call is trully 50-50, than I understand picking the Wizards side on this one.