NBA Players Traveling? Surely, You Jest, Spain

Yesterday, we brought you the news of Jose Calderon’s discontent. And perhaps we were a little too scathing with regards to Mr. Calderon, who is a fantastic player and, visual racial slurs aside, a credit to the international basketball community. Today, A Stern Warning follow up their initial post with reader reaction from Calderon’s home country of Spain, that clarifies all and makes the controversy a lot more concrete:↵↵⇥A Spanish reader has commented that the main problem that Spanish fans had, was with perceived travelling violations on the Americans which were committed where steps were taken before putting the ball down on the floor. Our friend then provided some examples of where this was an issue.↵↵These might the perils of translated interviews: Calderon wasn’t saying that different rules were in places, but that the refs weren’t calling traveling like they do overseas -- which, technically, is the same way it should be called in the NBA. The issue’s not what the current rules are, but whether NBA players follow the sport’s most basic rules. As we all know, they sometimes don’t, especially if they’re LeBron James or Dwyane Wade. The post includes examples of key offenses by the Redeem Team’s big two. Most awesomely, it’s got Spain’s Juan Carlos Navarro mocking the USA’s rule-bending in the waning minutes of play. ↵
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↵Of course, now we’ve gone from “new rules hurt us” to “calls weren’t made,” which ASW alluded to as a more reasonable take on the officiating. But, all weird calls on Team USA and Wade’s problems with the floor aside, can we really say that these NBA All-Stars would’ve been helpless if travels had been called tighter? Whether they would’ve been able to adjust is a big question we’ll never get answered. And, perhaps, puts a very tiny asterik by America’s triumphant romp through this highest level of international competition, one that saw them acknowledge their surroundings while pushing their own stardom -- both on and off the court.↵