When the Heat played the Blazers on December 28 last year, the Heat escaped with a one-point victory thanks to 37 points from Chris Bosh, including a monster, game-winning three-pointer as time expired. Dwyane Wade chipped in 16 points (and three turnovers) for the LeBron-less Heat, but now we have video evidence, Wade should have had at least one more turnover after taking an unusual number of steps with the ball sans dribble, but without getting called for a traveling violation.
This is hard for us to write because we think NBA referees, for the most part, perform admirably in a thankless job. The only time you read about NBA refs, it’s for a mistake. But they know that when they go into the profession, so it’s not like we’re lying awake at night worried that Joey Crawford looked a little morose on the court.
That being said, its been a long-running joke among casual fans that NBA players take extra steps and the refs ignore the repeated violations. We try and gently explain the traveling rules when this happens and chide them for being wrong or just incapable of letting go of the popular trope. Except, holy hell, the below GIF and the video of Dwayne Wade shows him taking seven steps against the Blazers, and it’s basically impossible to refute. He shuffles his feet when he catches the ball, and then does so again as he’s looking to pass the ball. At no time does he actually dribble, but you can count seven steps and he’s never called for the infraction.
The below video of Wade’s uncalled traveling violation is narrated by LeBron James as he infamously counts the number of rings the Heat will win after he headed south from Cleveland in the summer of 2010. By way of Guyism, here is video proof of Wade’s traveling:
The worst part about this is now we have to try and keep our friends from watching this video because then we’ll be lamenting many a night of strenuously defending the fairness of the world’s greatest professional sports league, the NBA.
Yeah, guys travel in the NBA sometimes, but we thought the refs could spot it when it happens especially when it’s blatant. Not so here. Not so at all. Heaven help us if this becomes the norm. Conspiracy theorists, start your engines.
[h/t Guyism; video via mrbigfatbrowndonkey]
What do you think?
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