These are very different from Harden’s step back jumpers. Harden takes more steps back - usually 2 (sometimes 3) while Jordan is taking one step back on most of his.
Absolutely correct. No one in there remote minds thinks these are any where close to the Harden gather hop - step backs. Absurd we in clutch fans think these are remotely close.
He's still dribbling on most of those. They don't look like anything close to a travel. Have we forgotten what travelling is?
no one said its a travel and no one has forgotten what travel is. 2 steps any direction after gathering the ball.. forward, backward, sideways
Hakeem Olajuwon had amazing footwork back in the day. People just accepted his amazing gifts. Really a shame, that Harden puts in SO MUCH WORK during the offseason to PERFECT his LEGAL footwork and then have the NBA world basically calling it traveling every time. Just discredit it right off the bat. Basically that would be like if you were a NBA Media journalist that spent years at college to get your degree and worked hard in your newspaper job to then have every reader say on every article that it is *plagiarized.* Imagine how you would feel?
I actually think those might be travels. Harden lands on two feet as a second step. Jordan might have been gathering but he steps back 2 and 3 in some of those. Or so it appears without slowing down.
Jordan used to travel, no doubt, but these step-backs don't make me want to go back and look up what the rule is. With Harden's step-backs, most of them have you consulting the rulebook and finding something like Rule 10, Section XIII, Paragraph b that they ought to just rename The Harden Rule. Back then, and really until the Eurostep and the Harden step-backs, it was just "that was more than two steps, man!" So now you have the old school looking and seeing more than 2 steps and automatically thinking it must be a travel and no school not sure about what a gather step is, so it must be a travel or the refs are idiots.
Harden's step back is fluid and not as obvious a travel as the gather-3 steps to the basket that quite a number of star players get away with.
The thread asks if it’s a travel. It doesn’t look anything like a travel. He doesn’t even take one step before gathering the ball. I was just answering the question. Chill out.
LONG time Rockets fan, and I'm a James Harden fan. However, there are some instances where James sets both feet, has the ball gathered, and THEN hops back. Looks like a travel to me. If you rewatch the Jordan clips above, that is a classic 'gather step' He is pushing off of one foot to re-position, plant and set both feet for the shot. But, having both feet set, and then jumping back to re-set on both feet seems like a travel. James doesn't always do that, but he HAS on occasion.
