What is traveling in basketball?

With how often rules across both professional and collegiate basketball, watching a game and keeping a Rolodex of the entire rule book on your head can be a very daunting task. The traveling rule can be a thorn in the side of many inquisitive fans.

With how loose the rules are and how unequally they can be enforced from refereeing crew to refereeing crew, it can be a bit of a test for fans who just want to know what the heck is going on. The travel rule has started many a living room argument,

What exactly is this rule? How is it enforced, and which players are among the worst offenders?

What is traveling in basketball?

A travel is when one player who has possession of the ball takes too many steps without dribbling. In the NBA, the official rule book states that a player can take no more than two steps without dribbling in between. This rule is enforced de facto rather than de jure in college.

If a player picks up their dribble, they can use one foot to pivot and spin, with the other foot being allowed to leave the ground. A travel can be called if the pivot foot is lifted up. Travels can also be called if the player attempts a jump shot and lands with both feet on the ground without releasing the ball.

Raptors all-time leaders in travels:

The Raptors debuted in 1995, and 1996 was the year travels started being recorded as an official stat. Many of the biggest offenders in this statistic are big men who likely saw their pivot foot move once or twice while jockeying for position.

• Chris Bosh-135
• Andrea Bargnani-115
• DeMar DeRozan-93
• Doug Christie-77
• Kyle Lowry-73
• Pascal Siakam-70
• Jonas Valanciunas-61
• OG Anunoby-52
• Serge Ibaka-47
• Marcus Camby-47

The fact that Lowry is so low despite being the starting point guard for almost a decade has to be extremely impressive. Bosh and Bargnani had the ball in their hands all the time in a period when the league was more willing to enforce this rule, so their place at the top of the list is unsurprising.