But as you can see by my Rony Seikaly avatar Ive been pulling for the Heat since day one. Im just trying to be impartial. Dude moved both his feet, in large strides, well before the ball left his hands.
No, he didn't travel.
It's been 20+ years now since the NBA kinda changed their traveling rules. Your steps do not count until after you gather. Slow it down and watch. He gathers on his right. First step is the left, second step is the right, then layup. That is a clean, NBA play.
In Game6 against the Bulls, pay attention to that Cole dunk on Noah. Cole has been studying Wade's moves, because he deployed Wade's "rainbow crossover." Wade (and other elite slashers) use the gather loophole in the rules to circumvent traveling. If you watch Cole on the play, you'll see the secret is when you complete the gather. By bringing the ball up over the head on the last dribble, you're technically not gathering until you get the ball over your head, because it can just be considered the natural trajectory of the ball (hard dribble). So y the time you gather it up high, you've snuck another step in, which Wade normally uses to eurostep his opponent. Cole did something similar with it that let him sneak by Boozer and get the angle to dunk it by Noah.
That last, high-dribble is the key to that move, and it's only legal because of the grey area of the gather. So yeah, Bron didn't gather until he was on his right foot, so the left is what the NBA usually sees as his first step. People who say Bron constantly travel just don't understand the way the rule is called in the pros. This is how it's called for everyone. PEACE.
