TLDR they werent allowed to travel and carry

This was a really enlightening watch. I think many NBA fans (myself included) are not aware of the level of intricacy shown here in how the rule was called then, which forced a certain style of dribbling for all players.

I knew that both palming and traveling were called far stricter then, but not to the level where it impacted the entire narrative (almost like easy bait to take) of how modern NBA players/coaches/analysts would automatically wrongly assume lower skill level.

It was fascinating watching live footage of how dribbling was taught and talked about decades ago; so much has changed, and also you can still see so much similar emphasis on aspects of fundamentals.

Awesome post! And great to see all the older footage from the 60s/early 70s.

I learned from an old timer that Earl Monroe’s spin dribble / carry move back in the day was the turning point. It had always been illegal to do - call it carrying traveling - whatever. Then the powers that be allowed him to do it and the rest is …

It doesn’t help when media members and players are so dismissive about players in previous generations without even bothering to do research. JJ Reddick was one of the main catalaysts who started the trend on shitting on older players he confidently and arrogantly went on the talk shows to spout his crap.

Also just a heads up for any concerns the video is too long, the actual content is under 30 minutes - and the most important parts are probably just the first 10 minutes. the total was 45 minutes because there’s highlights at the end of vintage ball handling so it’s not as long as the runtime implies!

Refs would call any dribbles higher than knees or hip.

My dad was the little man Naismith in ‘73 (Francis Pomroy version.. under 6’) at West Point.

His hesi/change of pace move was legendary. Froze people and he’d breeze right by them for a layup or jumper. He played well into his 50’s and even local college players had trouble with it in his older years.

Yes I do think the difference on how players were allowed to dribble was certainly a factor, but a huge part of modern skills is how much kids work their gather.

I feel like a lot of people somewhat slump dribbles and gathers into the same sort of “skills” but they are definitely 2 completely different things people learn and train. And from a timeline perspective, gathers simply were not emphasized from a coaching, training, or practicing standpoint until like the 90s.

Before then people trained their dribbles, footwork, and finishing. But when they also started training gathers is when we start seeing what we consider modern “skills” Like compare Isiah Thomas and Kyrie, they both were phenomenal at dribbling and had great footwork, but Isiah Thomas did not grow up working on his gathers like Kyrie did. Nobody back then really did.

Would be interesting to compare to FIBA/Euroleague, and see if there is a similar trend. I recall FIBA has a tighter traveling rule, e.g., you have to dribble once you catch the ball while in movement, whereas in the NBA you can just take your two steps and shoot it.