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Misunderstood Rules of the NBA

No , but if you catch it and dribble it, and pick it up , and dribble it again, the rules say it is not a travel , but the rules is stupid.
 
No , but if you catch it and dribble it, and pick it up , and dribble it again, the rules say it is not a travel , but the rules is stupid.

I have never seen a guy catch a ball, dribble it, pick it up, dribble again, and have it not called traveling or double dribble.
 
I have never seen a guy catch a ball, dribble it, pick it up, dribble again, and have it not called traveling or double dribble.

Just do 10 minutes of research on youtube. There is a great one where a player dribbles 3 or 4 times on a fast break, picks up the ball to avoid someone swiping at it, then dribbles a couple more times before a dunk...all with a ref following him down the sidelines. It happens.

Case in point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sjf2xCUmm0

(note: there is a better one than this, but this one came up right away searching for double dribble...note he catches it with both hands, dribbles once, then picks it up, changes hands, and dribbles again to the dunk)
 
Just do 10 minutes of research on youtube. There is a great one where a player dribbles 3 or 4 times on a fast break, picks up the ball to avoid someone swiping at it, then dribbles a couple more times before a dunk...all with a ref following him down the sidelines. It happens.

Case in point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sjf2xCUmm0

(note: there is a better one than this, but this one came up right away searching for double dribble...note he catches it with both hands, dribbles once, then picks it up, changes hands, and dribbles again to the dunk)


That's certainly a missed violation, but it's because the refs missed it rather than a misinterpretation of a rule.
 
Do you know what the word "catch" means?

If you have enough control of the ball to dribble it, then you have control of it. You don't need two hands on the ball to have control of it. Sorry for confusing the issue by using the word "catch". I doubt there is anything in the rules about catching it first. The league should just say that you can't double dribble. They shouldn't leave it up to the refs as to whether the player meant to double dribble, to be a mind-reader regarding the player's intent.

However, the interpretation of this rule does not bother me , I just find it curious.

What really bugs me is how the refs call offensive fouls , blocking fouls, and positioning fouls. It's just terrible. Doesn't make sense. Unfair. And the refs get it wrong way too much. The league really ought to rethink and retool both the rules, and the implementation of the rules, and fix this.
 
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If you have enough control of the ball to dribble it, then you have control of it. You don't need two hands on the ball to have control of it. Sorry for confusing the issue by using the word "catch". I doubt there is anything in the rules about catching it first. The league should just say that you can't double dribble. They shouldn't leave it up to the refs as to whether the player meant to double dribble, to be a mind-reader regarding the player's intent.

However, the interpretation of this rule does not bother me , I just find it curious.

What really bugs me is how the refs call offensive fouls , blocking fouls, and positioning fouls. It's just terrible. Doesn't make sense. Unfair. And the refs get it wrong way too much. The league really ought to rethink and retool both the rules, and the implementation of the rules, and fix this.

You have to define control in order for the rule to be able to be consistently called. Fumbling the ball, as Lewis does in the video, is not having control of the ball. The ball hitting the floor while in the process of fumbling the ball is really irrelevant.

Blocking-Charging is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, situation to call for any referee in any sport. Most fans do not understand this. These calls are determined by milliseconds and millimeters, from head to toe. The defensive player has a right to maintain a legal defensive position and take an offensive foul if the offensive player initiates contact while the defensive player has legal position and has done so before the offensive player has gone into a shooting motion. The common notion that "having feet set" is the end all, be all of calling charges and blocks is completely inaccurate. A defensive player can move his feet and take a charge, so long as he has proper body position.
 
It was close, but I would say he had control of the ball. I would advocate cleaning up the rules, and just say that you can't dribble, pick up your dribble, and dribble again. If you dribbled the ball, you had control of it. No grey area. No mess, no fuss. Take the arbitrariness out of the equation as much as possible.
 
As for the offensive fouls, I agree that having the feet set is not the be all and end all, and this is precisely one of the many reasons that the refs get the call wrong so often, that they are just focusing too much on whether the feet are set, though they often get that wrong too.

As I said, there are two problems.

1. The rules themselves are bad, as they are currently being interpreted.

2. The refs make the call incorrectly too often.
 
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