Renowned for being a very lenient league on the “walking” rule, the NBA has obviously decided to tighten the bolts (a little) at this level. In any case, this is what the latest figures say regarding this first quarter of the 2022-23 regular season.
This is l’insider Marc Stein who swung the stat following checking with the League: this season, referees whistle on average 2.9 “walk” per game, compared to only 1.3 last year.
The increase is not negligible, and it’s not because players suddenly decided to take an extra step (in addition to the two theoretically allowed) this year simply because they wanted to make their lives easier. It is above all that officials are now much more careful regarding this aspect of the game to prevent NBA games from gradually turning into a Harlem Globe Trotters show.
“But I don’t understand, a walk is a walk, isn’t it? »
Theoretically yes, but in practice NBA officiating is something that is far from all black or all white. Especially since at the level of the “walk”, between the way of counting the famous “zero step”, the good determination of the pivot foot and the general speed of the game, it is not always as obvious as when Bismack Biyombo rushes towards the basket on the counterattack.
LeBron’s reaction following this Biyombo travel ???? pic.twitter.com/uzv9VhOaZs
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 23, 2022
Even the pivot of the Suns is fed up…
In short, all that to say that it’s a little less fair in terms of “walking” this year. Now, as Warriors coach Steve Kerr mentioned following his player Stephen Curry was caught by patrol in a crucial play once morest the Mavs late in the game, it’s all regarding regularity and consistency.
Stephen Curry travels at a crucial moment late in the 4th quarter vs the Mavericks leaving 10 seconds left in the game pic.twitter.com/hOuDhH9ckG
— hoops bot (@hoops_bot) November 30, 2022
As we know, when the NBA reemphasizes certain rules or completely modifies others, referees sometimes tend to go to the opposite extreme, and there are times when it almost feels like the officials choose their moments to punish this or that player. And that doesn’t only apply to “walking” them, it also applies, for example, to ball ranges, which are legion in an NBA basketball game but which obviously aren’t all whistled because otherwise the game would last four hours. and the sight would be quite ugly to see.
“When the referees follow the rules to the letter to whistle ‘steps’, and that goes for all the rules, I think it’s a good thing for the game.
In our game [le Mavs – Warriors en antenne nationale de mardi, ndlr.], all the ‘steps’ have been whistled, it shows that the referees are capable of making such decisions. But for some reason, in some games they choose not to whistle.
The question, and Steve Kerr said it well, is whether the referees will sanction the ‘walking’ in each game. »
– The own of the Mavs Mark Cuban
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Source text: Marc Stein
