Jordan Poole first victim of NBA’s point of emphasis on discontinuous dribbles
Tuesday, the NBA warned teams that referees would focus on “discontinuous dribbles.” Jordan Poole didn’t get the memo.
In the Golden State Warriors’ game against the Miami Heat, the referees called the violation, more colloquially known as “carrying” or “palming”, four separate times. Three of those times it was called on the Warriors’ Poole. And the last whistle sparked a very meme-worthy reaction from the young guard.
Warriors Coach Steve Kerr was caught by surprise by the NBA’s sudden new point of emphasis. Maybe the team hotel in Miami had spotty wi-fi, because he said he missed the email about the new rule enforcement.
“We had a game today,” said Kerr. “I’m not looking at my email. I was shocked, because basically the whole league does that. They’ve been doing it since Allen Iverson convinced referees that it wasn’t a carry.”
Kerr didn’t dispute the illegality of the move by the letter of the law, just that it unfairly targeted Poole. “It is a carry,” he told reporters. “What Jordan does is a carry. But the whole league’s been doing it.”
There’s often a gap between how the game of basketball is regulated in the rule book, and how it’s actually officiated on the court. The NBA officially changed the rule book definition of traveling in 2019, allowing two steps, but stressed that “The revision will not change the substance of the rule but will help eliminate the gap between the rule as written and how it has been applied in NBA games.”
Now it appears that the NBA wants the enforcement of the rule to match the rule book in this case. Generally, these points of emphasis are stressed very hard at first, and then things slowly go back to normal as the season continues. But if this strictness continues, then Jordan Poole has to adjust his ball handling, or his new contract extension could be very rough for the Warriors.