During a stop in play at one point in yesterday’s midday Christmas matchup between your ailing Los Angeles Lakers and the far better Dallas Mavericks — which Dallas eventually won, 124-115 — Mavs head coach Jason Kidd jokingly chastised Lakers All-Star forward LeBron James for frequently, well, traveling with the rock in his hands.
“He does travel with the ball, but that’s for college to call travel. This is the NBA,” Kidd teased James and an attendant referee. “This dude [LeBron] right here travels too. Those are nice shoes by the way.”
The remarks were clearly made in jest, but Kidd wasn’t exactly wrong. James frequently takes four or five steps while holding the ball. The league has been striving to crack down on carrying and traveling violations throughout the NBA this season.
NBA All-Stars generally get away with traveling unimpeded, but the practice has become so annoying to behold, even to the average viewer, that the league clearly felt it necessary to start penalizing the practice a bit more. That has yet to really affect James specifically, although other, lesser All-Star lights have been whistled.
Kidd, as you remember I’m sure, served as Frank Vogel’s assistant head coach in Los Angeles from 2019-2021, winning a championship with the Lakers in that magical 2020 Orlando bubble run. Prior to his eventful coaching career (he also had stints as a head coach with the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks), the Hall of Famer was a 10-time All-Star point guard who led the New Jersey Nets to two NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003, including one against your Shaqobe-era Los Angeles Lakers in ’02 (they lost, obviously).
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