[Highlight] Genuine questions: Would this move by Shai be legal in the 90's?
posted by u/ToronoRapture · 2026-10-21 09:52 UTC
(Link/image post, original: https://streamable.com/9l9or3)

## Top comments
1. u/AutoModerator · 2026-10-21 09:52 UTC
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2. u/OccidoViper · 2026-10-21 10:00 UTC
That would have been called a travel
3. u/Key_Preparation_4129 · 2026-10-21 11:40 UTC
Same way Iverson's crossover would've been called a carry every time in the 70s/80s. Rules change and get more lenient. At this rate by 2050 they'll just let them hold and cup the ball like in football if this bs keeps going.
4. u/glad-yogurt-89 · 2026-10-21 12:52 UTC
Here is why the NBA allowing traveling like this sucks: SGA is a great player and over the last few seasons he's putting up numbers that when you look at them on paper they are like Jordan 1991 numbers, and MJ 1991 is the most lethal player you can imagine. And SGA in 2026 is pretty lethal, and we'd like to make the comparison. But then there's stuff like, SGA can pick up the ball and take three steps and go to a different part of the court and that is "legal" because the refs don't blow their whistle.
5. u/YSLAnunoby · 2026-10-21 14:44 UTC
Yeah that's how I feel, Shai is clearly a ridiculously good player on an all time run, but why do we need to make it even easier for him?
6. u/4evrRaider · 2026-10-21 14:51 UTC
I realized this a few years ago,I haven’t seen a carry call in years! Like that rule doesn’t exist anymore. It’s wild how we justa let it go.
7. u/ControlAgent13 · 2026-10-21 15:52 UTC
carry call in years
Saw one called last year and was surprised.
I watched a 1960s NBA final game 7 Lakers vs Celtics on Youtube. There were 4 traveling calls and 2 double dribble.
So, yeah, the game has changed dramatically.
8. u/Sandor_Clegane1 · 2026-10-21 15:05 UTC
The crazy thing is if he got a worse whistle people would praise him more on here.
Though there is an argument to be made that his offense is so good because if you dare defend him you get called for a foul.
9. u/MuckBulligan · 2026-10-21 15:05 UTC
In 91 fans were wondering why the refs let MJ palm the ball all the time.
10. u/ImAShaaaark · 2026-10-21 16:49 UTC
Dude people thought the same about Jordan getting away with shit, his deep crossovers would have been a travel consistently just a few years before. Also, just as players now have rules (or enforcement) making it easier for them on offense, players back then did too. Illegal defense rules were created with the express intention of preventing teams from ganging up on the star player. How do you imagine it might go if all of the most effective defensive schema in the league today were ruled illegal? Tightened up ball handling rules or no it'd be a bloodbath.
11. u/fchaoss · 2026-10-21 17:44 UTC
They introduced zone and allowed double teaming which deflated the scoreboard in the 2000s. In response they created the gather step rule to allow offence to have more flexibility (my friends joked that it was because Lebron kept taking 3 steps). NBA is an entertainment performance in comparison to FIBA games.
12. u/Itchy1Grip · 2026-10-21 12:09 UTC
It's just gonna turn into slam ball eventually
13. u/Stormlight_Silver · 2026-10-21 12:16 UTC
Wait until they turn Gamebreaker on
14. u/PlaidPCAK · 2026-10-21 12:53 UTC
Fuck it I'm in
15. u/CoolinAllDay · 2026-10-21 12:25 UTC
You’re comparing an elite dribble move where the ball was actually being put on the ground. Comparing Iversons crossover to SGAs carry move is a crime.
16. u/hickok3 · 2026-10-21 12:30 UTC
Iverson's crossover was regularly called a carry and bemoaned by the commentators in his first few years in the league. Eventually the refs loosened up the rules to allow it, and it has progressed to the nonsense we have today.
You may think it's a crome to compare the two, but the old heads back then also thought his crossover was an egregious carry compared to how they were taught and reffed to play.
17. u/asonkidd · 2026-10-21 12:47 UTC
The NBA office sided with Iverson’s critics. As a Los Angeles Times story from a few months into his rookie season notes, “Every week, it seems as if the league sends out another memo on [Iverson’s] palming.” But efforts to curtail Iverson’s crossover didn’t immediately take hold. The trendsetting phenom continued to shake defenders and flirt with the line dividing legitimate basketball move from clear violation. Other players adopted their own versions of the crossover. Young fans loved the way these players regularly put opponents on skates, while cranky columnists often blamed Iverson for the deterioration of the game’s fundamentals.
As the 1990s bled into the 2000s, the NBA doubled down on its efforts. It seemed as if every season began with at least one story of how the league planned to more strictly enforce palming.
Exactly. People love talking on stuff they clearly have no clue about.
18. u/RIPEOTCDXVI · 2026-10-21 13:19 UTC
My dad is almost 80 and he's been bitching about palming since I watched him cry at Larry Bird's retirement ceremony. I think the only dribble in the league he has approved of in the last half century is Evan Turner.
19. u/makemeking706 · 2026-10-21 14:36 UTC
Marge Simpson ass dribble.
20. u/asonkidd · 2026-10-21 12:35 UTC
Iverson's wide cross was a huge carry though. It's what made him impossible to guard along with his insane first step. "Elite dribble move" lmao