The new NBA season is less than a week old, and the league is already facing a controversy of its own making: traveling. The NBA has been far too lax on traveling over the last decades, but they are just now seeing negative publicity surrounding non-calls.
We've already seen several players go viral, including star Giannis Antetokounmpo and LaMelo Ball. Giannis was able to go from half court to the rim for a dunk while taking just one dribble. On the other hand, Ball hilariously took four extra steps in front of a referee and drilled a three (something the league later admitted).
Not to be outdone, his teammate, Anthony Edwards, got away with a hilarious double dribble against the Miami Heat on opening night. Those three clips all went viral and caused unwanted publicity for the NBA online. Now, the league should strongly consider finally enforcing traveling calls.
The NBA must finally take traveling seriously
The NBA continues to shoot itself in the foot with bad officiating. The league has made itself into a joke by ignoring blatant and easily callable traveling, which, in turn, has turned some basketball fans off of the product.
The easy solution is to crack down on traveling, but they seemingly have no intention of doing so. They could have solved this problem years ago. Instead, they embolden offensive players to try to find hacks to further exploit traveling calls.
The NBA opened Pandora's box by not cracking down on traveling when they had the chance. Now, offensive players are looking for every possible advantage, including outright traveling and daring officials to make the call. Thus far, the NBA and the officials have shown no indication that they will crack down.
The NBA must start following its own rule book
Look, officiating is difficult as is, but the NBA has made it even more difficult by blatantly ignoring rules. Defenders have virtually no chance when offensive players can take four or five steps and gain separation while they can't even reach in.
That's blatantly unfair and makes offensive players that much more impactful. Pro sports leagues often favor offense over defense, but the NBA has gone further than their rivals by turning a blind eye to something so blatant.
Imagine the NFL ignoring off-sides calls or MLB having not caring about whether a ball is fair or foul. It doesn't make sense, does it? Well, that's what the NBA has done with traveling. It isn't helping the league, so fix it.
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