Giannis Antetokounmpo caught the ball just inside the halfcourt line at Fiserv Forum, and then took seven steps to just one dribble before scoring a basket over New York Knicks forward Karl-Anthony Towns.
Nobody noticed what the Milwaukee Bucks superstar had pulled off live during the national NBC broadcast on Tuesday, Oct. 28, as the Bucks played host to the Knicks in an early-season NBA matchup. But a slow-motion replay revealed a sequence that would quickly inspire the latest social media debate about whether the best basketball league in the world actually calls traveling anymore.
‘We could have played til we were 50, if we get that runway,’ Reggie Miller said to fellow NBC analyst and former NBA player Jamal Crawford as they laughed and counted the steps on air.
But Antetokounmpo did not get called for traveling and NBC’s Mike Tirico explained on the broadcast to an incredulous Miller the non-call might have been the correct call given the way the NBA’s ‘gather rule’ is written. It became the highlight shared around the internet on a night when the Bucks secured a 121-111 win behind 37 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists from Antetokounmpo against the team that had trade talks about him this past offseason.
Here’s a breakdown of the gather rule, how it applies to Antetokounmpo’s travel/non-travel against the Knicks and some of the best reactions to Antetokounmpo’s one-dribble foray to the basket:
What is the NBA’s gather rule?
The actual act of ‘the gather,’ is defined in two ways by the NBA in Section II of its official rules. For a player who receives the ball via a pass or gains possession of a loose ball, the gather is defined as ‘the point where the player gains enough control of the ball to hold it, change hands, pass, shoot, or the player cradles the ball against his body.’
For a player who is in control of the ball while dribbling, the gather is defined as the point where a player does any one of the following:
Puts two hands on the ball, or otherwise permits the ball to come to rest, while he is in control of it.
Puts a hand under the ball and brings it to a pause;
Otherwise gains enough control of the ball to hold it, change hands, pass, shoot, or the player cradles the ball against his body.
In Antetokounmpo’s case, latter definition of ‘the gather’ applies because it occurred while he was in control of the ball and dribbling, even if just one time. Furthermore, Section XIII of the NBA rules state ‘a player who gathers the ball while progressing may take two steps in coming to a stop, passing or shooting the ball.’
How NBA gather rule applies to Giannis Antetokounmpo play
Though Antetokounmpo took five steps after his lone dribble on the play, the non-travel argument would be that his ‘gather’ didn’t technically start until he put his left hand on the ball. He only took two steps after that.
‘The counting starts when he can’t dribble anymore, so that ball is laying on his hand, he can put it down one more time,’ Tirico said on the broadcast to an unconvinced Miller. ‘Alright look, Reg, don’t look at me. I don’t write the rules. I just read them to you, pal. I didn’t say that that wasn’t (traveling). I’m just saying that’s what it is.’
Best Giannis Antetokounmpo reactions
Miller was among those to make light of the situation, and crack jokes playing off the ambiguity of the rule. ‘There’s going to be some kid in Oshkosh, Wisconsin now going to their local gym yelling, I’m doing the gather,’ Miller said.
Here are some more of the compelling reactions around social media after the highlight of Antetokounmpo’s non-travel went viral: